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THE ADVANCED CHRISTIAN CULTURE COURSES 
VOLUME III 

WHY IS CHRISTIANITY TRUE ? 



WHY IS CHRISTIANITY TRUE? 



CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 



BY 

E. Y. MULLINS, D. D., LL. D., 

PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 



CHICAGO 

CHRISTIAN CULTURE PRESS 

1905 






/ of 30NGRESS 

JitP. 15 1905 




3op*rigni entry 
Z2.tqreS 

// 7 ff tf * 

SOP* s» 



Copyright, 1905 
By EDGAR Y. MULLINS 



Set up, electrotyped, printed, July, 1905 



TO 
MY FATHER 

WHO FIRST STIRRED ME TO THOUGHT UPON GREAT THEMES 

AND TO 
MY MOTHER 

THE GENTLE URGENCY OF WHOSE INFLUENCE HAS 4/ER BEEN 

TOWARD CHRIST AND HIS TRUTH 

THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



PREFACE 

Many believers and many more would-be believers 
in Christianity are staggered by the assumptions and 
sometimes by the reasoned conclusions of current 
science or philosophy. The need is great for a re- 
statement of the grounds of our Christian belief. 
Indeed, in recent years numerous works on the sub- 
ject have appeared. In Great Britain especially 
many valuable manuals have been published. Of the 
more recent and extended works in English those of 
Professors Fisher and Bruce stand in the front rank. 
Both of them are exceedingly valuable as general 
treatises. Other works not so elaborate have done 
admirable service. Among these may be named Mr. 
Ballard's vigorous book entitled The Miracles of Un- 
belief, in which he deals many a stalwart blow by 
means of a single conception consistently applied, 
at all points of the attack upon Christian belief. Mr. 
Robertson Nicoll's The Church's One Foundation 
states with great clearness and force the real issues 
raised by recent destructive critical theories. 

Some writers on the evidences of Christianity, 
however, surrender so much that their productions 
seem to be books on Christian evidences with Chris- 
tianity left out. They render no real service to 
Christianity, who strip away from it all its charac- 

rii 



Vlll 



PREFACE 



t eristic features in order to commend it to a certain 
type of the unbelieving mind. Christianity is a dis- 
tinct order of facts. These facts may be investi- 
gated. The first Christian literature, Christian his- 
tory and Christian experience bear witness to the ac- 
tion of a supernatural power among men. Now if 
this witness is doubtful or false, by all means let 
us face the fact and relegate Christianity to a place 
among the many human attempts to find God. If, 
on the contrary, this witness can be shown to rest on 
solid grounds, let us not evade the issue with the 
prevalent unbelief, but in all sincerity and candor 
seek to make those grounds clear. No two orders of 
fact can permanently remain opposed to each other. 
The writer believes strongly that it is a mistake 
to exclude any of the essential elements from the 
defense of Christianity in the interest of some al- 
leged intellectual necessity of the times. Frankness 
is better than reserve, for example, in dealing with 
miracles. The parts of Eevelation are joined together 
not mechanically but organically. One piece cannot 
be taken away as a sample, like an ornament from a 
cabinet, without injury to the whole. Emphasis and 
proportion, of course, are always in order. There is 
no need to tear miracles out of their place and hurl 
them into the teeth of the modern scientific man. 
The need is rather to assert clearly and restore the 
issue as to miracles. The disbeliever in Christianity, 
when attacking miracles, as a rule, never recognizes 
the real point. 



PEEFACE 



IX 



We do not mean, of course, to assert that it is 
improper to develop one or another line of evidence to 
the exclusion, for the time, of other lines. This is 
often most desirable. We think, however, it is un- 
fortunate to attempt to discredit any of the well- 
established forms of the argument for Christianity 
merely because some particular form happens for the 
moment to be unpopular. In the end more is lost 
than is gained by the procedure. 

The attempt is made in the succeeding pages to 
state the argument for Christian belief from the 
four leading standpoints. The aim has been to put 
the case as clearly and with as little of the formal 
and technical in language and style as the nature 
of the subject would admit. 

None of the following chapters has been published 
before except parts of the fifteenth, which appeared 
about a year ago in a review article. The argument 
as a whole, however, has been restated. 

The £lan of the publishers of the series of books 
to which this volume belongs does not admit of foot- 
notes, and not a great deal of space for reference 
anywhere. The numerals in the text refer to sources 
which are given at the end of the volume. This, of 
course, is no more than a partial recognition of my 
indebtedness to others who have preceded me in this 
field. 

The "Bibliography" which is appended has been 
constructed on the principle of indicating to the gen- 
eral reader such works as are not too difficult to ob- 



X PREFACE 

tain, and which will enable him to pursue his 9tudies 
of the subjects of the various chapters at greater 
length when desired. The list of books given is far 
from exahustive, but it is hoped that it is not want- 
ing in adaptation to the end in view and sufficiently 
extended to meet the needs of the majority of readers. 
It remains only to say that the index has been pre- 
pared by Rev. W. C. James, Th. D., pastor of the 
First Baptist Church, Russellville, Kentucky. 

E. Y. Mullins. 
Louisville, Kentucky, 

May 30th, 1905. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PABT I. 

THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF THE WOBLD. 

CHAPTER I. 

MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 

1. The Christian needs to be able to defend his faith. — 
2. Apologetics and Christian evidences. — 3. The task of 
the apologist. — 4. Philosophy and the inductive methods. — 
5. Use of hypothesis. — 6. The quest of facts. — 7. Our 
assumptions. — 8. The scientific ideal. — 9. Ultimate be- 
liefs of religion trustworthy. — 10. Facts of religion as 
real as those of physical nature. — 11. A prevalent error. — 
12. Mental and spiritual facts known best. — 13. Diverse 
conclusions due to diverse spheres of thought. — 14. How 
the dispute must be settled. — 15. Unity through person- 
ality. — 16. Science founded on unproved first truths. — 17. 
Four classes of facts favor the Christian view. — 18. Physi- 
cal nature. — 19. New Testament Revelation. — 20. Chris- 
tian experience. — 21. Christian history. — 22. The argu- 
ment cumulative 3-19 

CHAPTER II. 

PANTHEISM. 

23. The great question. — 24. Theories must rest on 
facts. — 25. Two elements in the world of fact. — 26. The 
problem and theories of unity. — 27. Two groups of theo- 
ries. — 28. Spinoza and pantheism. — 29. Its conception of 
substance and attributes. — 30. Pantheism and nature. — 31. 
Pantheism and God. — 32. Pantheism is monistic. — 33. Is 
Pantheism tenable? — 34. Pantheism gains unity by force 
not by thought. — 35. Is inconsistent on cause and effect. — 

xi 



xii CONTENTS 

36. Really teaches two principles instead of one. — 37. 
Thought known only as personal. — 38. Lotze on person- 
ality. — 39. Pantheism destroys morality. — 40. It destroys 
religion.— 41. Facts of consciousness destroy pantheism. — 
42. Summary 20-32 

CHAPTER III. 

MATERIALISM. 

43. Idealism and materialism. — 44. Idealism identifies 
thought and things.— 45. Recognizes that thought is every- 
where. — 46. Fails to preserve freedom and personality. — 
47. Idealism against materialism. — 48. Materialism * be- 
gins with atoms, force and motion. — 49. Holds that mind 
and matter are one. — 50. Relies upon conservatism of 
energy. — 51. Materialistic atom a mere assumption. — 52. 
Materialism fails to unify the world. — 53. Dogmatizes 
where science is silent. — 54. Brain does not produce 
thought. — 55. Materialism does not account for mind. — 
56. Nor for design in man and nature. — 57. Opposed to 
morality and religion. — 58. Mindstuff theory unproved. — 
59. Science vindicates the spiritual view 33-47 

CHAPTER IV. 

AGNOSTICISM. 

60. Agnosticism asserts that ultimate realities are un- 
knowable. — 61. Human mind without capacity for them. — 
62. But this implies some knowledge of them. — 63. Evi- 
dence from will. — 64. Agnosticism denies God virtually. — 
65. Agnosticism inconsistent. — 66. Assumes radical differ- 
ence between appearance and reality. — 67. That realities 
are beyond our knowledge. — 68. That our faculties are in- 
competent. — 69. There are laws of thought as well as laws 
of things. — 70. No agnostic is consistent. — 71. Religious 
and moral life suffer under agnosticism 48-57 

CHAPTER V. 

EVOLUTION. 

72. Evolution defined. — 73. The conception analyzed. — 
74. Evolution not a first cause. — 75. Scientific and philo- 
sophic evolution. — 76. Defective as to origins. — 77. Defec- 



CONTENTS X iii 

tive as to continuity. — 78. Defective as to inclusiveness. — 
79. Does not find a single principle of unity. — 80. Theistic 
evolution. — 81. Two forms of it. — 82. Various attitudes 
towards evolution. — 83. Untenable even as hypothesis in 
extreme forms. — 84. Christian theistic view 58-71 

CHAPTER VI. 

THEISM : EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

85. Two ways of regarding the proof. — 86. Can God's 
existence be proved? — 87. The practical reason. — 88. 
Other methods. — 89. Not mathematical demonstration. — 
90. How far the belief is intuitive. — 91. Variety of types 
of theism. — 92. The argument from will. — 93. The argu- 
ment from mind. — 94. The argument from design. — $5. 
Evolution and design. — 96. The moral and historical proof. 
— 97. Summary of the argument. — 98. Replies to objec- 
tions. — 99. Theism alone insufficient 72-90 

PART II. 

JESUS CHRIST THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS. 

100. A simple study of the facts. — 101. Christ in a 
series of relationships. — 102. Christ in relation to sin. — 
103. Sinless, forgives sin, and secures its remission. — 104. 
Christ in relation to law. — 105. Christ is lawgiver and 
Lord. — 106. Christ in relation to the Kingdom. — 107. 
Christ is King and Founder of the Kingdom. — 108. Christ 's 
relations to Providence. — 109. Christ is the Lord of Provi- 
dence. — 110. Christ controls nature's forces. — 111. Christ 
in relation to mankind. — 112. Sympathy, Sovereignty, Ob- 
ject of worship. — 113. Christ identified himself with God. 
— 114. Definite plan of Christ 's life. — 115. Christ 's mirac- 
ulous entrance and departure. — Conclusion 93-111 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MEANING OF THE PICTURE. 

116. Christ the centre of the struggle. — 117. The super- 
natural Christ the only adequate hypothesis. — 118. Ac- 



xiv CONTENTS 

eounts for unity and consistency of the picture. — 119. 
Many relationships thus explained. — 120. Consistency of 
the miraculous element. — 121. Diverse elements of Christ's 
consciousness. — 122. The interdependence of parts. — 123. 
The picture original and vital. — 124. The moral grandeur 
of Jesus. — 125. Lowly and heroic virtues combined. — 126. 
Union of opposites. — 127. His teaching as to God and 
man. 112-124 

CHAPTEE IX. 

OPPOSING THEORIES. 

128. Concessions of unbelievers. — 129. Eenan, Eomanes 
and Mill. — 130. Strauss. Goethe and Arnold. — 131. 
Lecky's view. — 132. Eelation of moral to physical mira- 
cles. — 133. Theory that the portrait is an ideal produc- 
tion. — 134. Theory of myths. — 135. Theory of deification. 
— 136. Eemarks upon all the theories. — 137. The moral 
claim carries all the others .125-135 

CHAPTEE X. 

CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR: PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 

138. Criticism and the Bible. — 139. Christ's creative 
work. — 140. The Synoptic Gospels his creation. — 141. 
Shown by his acknowledged pre-eminence as teacher. — 142. 
Christ's action prior to written Gospels. — 143. Paul's 
career and teaching.— 144. Doctrinal agreement with Gos- 
pels. — 145. Kingdom and church, Holy Spirit. — 146. Ser- 
mon on the Mount. — 147. Lord's Supper, death and resur- 
rection. — 148. Paul's career and Christ's plan. — 149. The 
Person of Christ. — 150. Paul's religious experience.— 151. 
Eesults of Paul's labors. — 152. Summary. — 153. Christ 
is triumphant in Paul. — 154. Paul not the creator of Chris- 
tianity. — 155. The fourth Gospel. — 156. Underlying unity 
of all the Gospels. — 157. The Christian continuities.,136-156 

CHAPTEE XI. 

CHRIST AS PRACTICAL IDEALIST : ETHICS AND RELIGION. 

158. The argument from Christian ethics restated. — 
159. Tests of ethical teaching. — 160. Effectiveness of the 
ethical appeal of Christ. — 161. Their universality and com- 



CONTENTS xv 

bination with religion. — 162. Christ's ethical enterprise. — 
163. Redemptive as well as ethical. — 164. The difficulties. 
— 165. The means, repentance. — 166. The church. — 167. 
Preaching and the Holy Spirit. — 168. Confirmatory views. 
— 169. Conclusion and summary 157-169 

CHAPTER XII. 

MIRACLES: A BOND OF UNITY. 

170. Miracles defined. — 171. Proper attitude towards 
miracles. — 172. Science and miracles. — 173. Philosophy 
and miracles. — 174. Hume on miracles. — 175. Half way 
position on miracles. — 176. Violent exegesis to sustain it. — 
177. Religious experience and miracles. — 178. Immanence 
alone insufficient. — 179. Assumptions as to miracles. — 180. 
Miracles imply an ordered universe. — 181. The world of 
matter subordinate to the world of spirit. — 182. Personal- 
ity and will explain miracles. — 183. Ethical quality of the 
miracles. — 184. A means of revelation. — 185. A bond of 
unity. — 186. Summary of the evidence for New Testament 
miracles. — 187. Conclusion 170-187 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE RESURRECTION OP JESUS. 

188. Summary of facts. — 189. Simplicity of the fact to 
be proved. — 190. Tests of historical evidence. — 191. De- 
tails of the Gospel account. — 192. Variety of appearances 
of Christ. — 193. The resurrection unexpected. — 194. 
Paul's testimony. — 195. His appeal to living witnesses. — 
196. Summary of evidence from Paul. — 197. Confirmation 
of the evidence. — 198. Opposing theories. — 199. Swoon 
theory. — 200. Theory of Keim. — 201. Vision theory.— 202. 
Conditions preclude hallucination. — 203. Too many are de- 
ceived. — 204. Unaccountable restraint. — 205. Teachings of 
the risen Christ unexplained. — 206. Cause and effect vio- 
lated. — 207. Summary and conclusion 188-203 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE TOUR GOSPELS : THE LITERARY SOURCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

208. Statement of facts.— 209. The starting point, A. 
D. 200.— 210. Testimony of Irenseus.— 211. Clement of 



xvi CONTENTS 

Alexandria. — 212. The Muratorian Fragment and Tertul- 
lian. — 213. Evidence at close of second century. — 214. 
Tatian and Justin Martyr. — 215. Papias and Polycarp. — 
216. Summary. — 217. Criterion of apostolicity. — 218. 
During the second century. — 219. A selective process con- 
trolled the churches. — 220. Secondary literature of the 
period. — 221. The modern "synoptic problem. M — 222. 
Evidence from heretical sects. — 223. Agreement on the 
Gospel among the churches. — 224. Burden of proof on 
those who deny. — 225. Value of cumulative evidence . . 204-221 

CHAPTER XV. 

CHRIST AND EVOLUTION: HIS PLACE IN THE WORLD ORDER. 

226. Three propositions. — 227. Christ the crown of na- 
ture. — 228. This view based on theism. — 229. Christ had 
no human father. — 230. Christ met a moral need of the 
world. — 231. Moral and intellectual paralysis of the age. — 
232. The future dark. — 233. The soil of Judaism without 
promise. — 234. Christ destroyed Judaism. — 235. Paul in- 
terprets Judaism. — 236. Moral despair of Jew and gentile. 
— 237. Christ a divine product through Judaism. — 238. 
Old Testament prophecy. — 239. Contradictories unite in 
Christ.— 240. Summary 222-237 

PART III. 

THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

241. Our study is of Christian experience. — 242. This 
best found in representative types. — 243. The conversion 
of Paul.— 244. The apostle John.— 245. Polycarp.— 246. 
St. Hilary. — 247. Luther. — 248. John Bunyan. — 249. 
Adolphe Monod.— 250. Hudson Taylor.— 251. S. H. Had- 
ley.— 252. Sir Algernon Coote— 253. Capt. A. T. Mahan. 
—254. Bishop Moule.— 255. R. A. Torrey.— 256. J. Ew- 
ing. — 257. Steve Holcombe. — 258. A scientist's confes- 
sion of faith, E. L. Gregory 241-262 



CONTENTS xy i\ 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE ANALYSES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

259. The distinctively Christian type of experience. — 
260. We move in a realm of facts and realities. — 261. 
How spiritual knowledge arises. — 262. Christian experience 
may be studied as an order of facts. — 263. Christian ex- 
perience defined. — 264. The initial stage. — 265. A sur- 
rendered will, repentance and faith. — 266. The presence 
of Another in Christian experience. — 267. Results, relig- 
ious, moralj intellectual. — 268. New ethical ideal and rein- 
forcement. — 269. The intellectual satisfaction. — 270. The 
thought side and fact side of Christianity. — 271. Nature of 
faith.— 272. The essentials of Christian experience.. 263-274 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

273. Is religious experience real or fanciful? — 274. The 
answer starts from a fact of consciousness. — 275. The sub- 
conscious mind. — 276. A psychological difficulty. — 277. 
Relation of mind states to brain states. — 278. After experi- 
ence confirms the first stage. — 279. Is the Power personal? 
— 280. Results produced are personal. — 281. Personal re- 
lationships involved. — 282. Plan implies personal guidance. 
— 283. Christ's definition of religious experience. — 284. 
Christ meets the personal craving of the soul. — 285. Knowl- 
edge involved in faith in Christ 275-285 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE VERIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

286. Verification defined. — 287. Verification by means 
of contrast. — 288. Verification through reflection. — 289. 
Makes forgiveness reasonable. — 290. Assurance through re- 
flection. — 291. Reflection affects the view of Christ. — 292. 
Verification in practical life. — 293. New moral power. — 
294. Enduring the ills of life. — 295. Experience as cause 
and effect. — 296. Verification through prayer. — 297. The 
experience of other Christians. — 298. Compared with New 
Testament experience. — 299. Through the witness of the 
Holy Spirit. — 300. Verification progressive and cumula- 
tive ski 286-303 



xviii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE RELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 

301. Proposed substitutes for Christ. — 302. The idealis- 
tic Christ.— 303. The Christ of Ritschl.— 304. The Christ 
of recent psychology. — 305. Is the evidence convincing to 
the non-Christian? — 306. Many living witnesses. — 307. 
Christ the centre of history. — 308. Testimony of the New 
Testament. — 309. Christ and Christian evangelism. — 310. 
Method of concomitant variations. — 311. Christ's suprem- 
acy in man's moral struggles. — 312. Rational explanation 
of evangelism. — 313. Failure of evangelism with Christ 
left out. — 314. Christian experience produces confidence. — 
315. Christ the religious finality. — 316. Christian experi- 
ence as hypothesis. — 317. Conclusion 304-321 

PART IV. 

THE EVIDENCE FROM CHRISTIAN HISTORY. 

CHAPTER XXI 



THE TEST OF USEFULNESS: CHRISTIANITY A PERPETUAL 
INCENTIVE. 

318. The standard of success applied to Christianity. — 
319. Success relative to the opposition. — 320. Relative to 
the Christian programme. — 321. Success relative to spirit- 
ual laws. — 322. Success is relative to the end in view. — 323. 
Christ's power to mould personalities. — 324. Diversity of 
moral type. — 325. Success in overcoming opposition. — 
326. Evolution does not explain success of early Christian- 
ity. — 327. Its power of recovery from within. — 328. Its 
power to mould diverse peoples. — 329. Universality of 
Christian ideals. — 330. Symmetry of Christian character. — 
331. Progressive nature of Christianity. — 332. Cause of 
Christian success. — 333. Christianity is God seeking man. 
— 334. Christianity as Revelation and Energy. — 335. God 
personalized in Christ. — 336. A Ritschlian concession — 
337. Theism alone insufficient 325-342 



CONTENTS xix 

CHAPTER XXIL 

THE PAST AND PRESENT CHRIST AND HIS SUPREME ACT. 

338. Gesta Christi and Gestum Christi.—ZZ9. Early- 
Christianity and the child, woman and slave. — 340. Low 
morals of the Roman world. — 341. Three ways of showing 
Christ's supremacy. — 342. The new leaven of charity. — 
343. Christ 's present act of Regeneration. — 344. The 
moral discontent of the age. — 345. The worth of the indi- 
vidual. — 346. The perfect society. — 347. Christ's doc- 
trine of God.— 348. Christ's doctrine of sin.— 349. The 
church the seedplot of truth. — 350. Liberty, equality, fra- 
ternity. — 351. Industrial freedom. — 352. Partial eclipse 
of the ideal. — 353. Christ never without witnesses. — 354. 
Ways of recognizing Christ's leadership. — 355. Conclu- 
sion 343-358 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

356. Missions contain the essence of Christianity. — 357. 
The missionary conception. — 358. Its vindication by his- 
tory. — 359. Its exalted motive. — 360. Primarily love to 
Christ.— 361. England's forgotten worthies.— 362. The 
loftier missionary devotion. — 363. Method of propaga- 
tion. — 364. "lain your King. ' ' — 365. Christ the voice of 
eternal truth. — 366. Missionary energy and success. — 367. 
It embraces all reforms. — 368. Notable missionaries. — 369. 
Education and Bible translation. — 370. Missionary pa- 
tience. — 371. Statistics. — 372. The fresh energy of mis- 
sions 359-377 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

CHRIST COMPARED WITH MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA. 

373. Various estimates of Mohammed. — 374. Points 
conceded. — 375. Mohammedan practices. — 376. Defective 
view of God. — 377. Life and morals. — 378. Propagation 
by force. — 379. A personal religion. — 380. Far below 
Christianity. — 381. Rise of Buddha. — 382. His soul 
thirst.— 383. The light of Buddha.— 384. Buddhist knowl- 
edge. — 385. Speculative doctrines, transmigration and 



XX 



CONTENTS 



Karma. — 386. Meaning of Karma. — 387. Elevated ethics 
of Buddha. — 388. Other qualities. — 389. Inferior to 
Christianity in its view of God. — 390. Buddhism not a re- 
ligion. — 391. Buddhism self -regarding. — 392. A dark 
background to exhibit Christian truth 378-395 

CHAPTEE XXV. 

CHRISTIANITY THE TOTAL ANSWER TO MAN *S RELIGIOUS NEED 

393. Place of religion recognized. — 394. The "essence" 
of Christianity in current thought. — 395. Final test of re- 
ligion. — 396. Absolutely and relatively best in religion. — 
397. Christianity is absolutely best. — 398. The religion of 
man as man. — 399. Its doctrine of God. — 400. Incarna- 
tion implies bond between man and God. — 401. Christian 
conception of God the highest possible.— 402. Christian 
view of man. — 403. Man needs redemption.— -404. Man 
has social needs. — 405. Priesthood and sacrifice in Chris- 
tianity. — 406. Man's individuality respected. — 407. Chris- 
tian moral ideal highest. — 408. Is universally adapted to 
men. — 409. Eepentance and faith. — 410. Contain all moral 
possibilities. — 411. Christianity appeals also to highest in 
man. — 412. Our attitude towards other religions. — 396-412 

Works referred to in the Text 413-421 

Bibliography 423-441 

Index , , ,~. 443-450 



PART I. 

THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 

MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 

1. The Christian of to-day is called upon to give a 
reason for the faith that is in him. The new weapons 
of attack call for new methods of defense. The be- 
liever in Christ may indeed cherish no doubt. For 
his own private religious life he may need no apolo- 
getic. Some indeed insist that it is needless to spend 
time repelling the attacks of unbelief. But they for- 
get the increasing multitude who are dazed or be- 
wildered by the claims and the conclusions of a skep- 
ticism which wears the garb of science and philoso- 
phy. Others think that faith and science should be 
left to go each its own way ; that it is useless and vain 
to attempt a reconciliation. Each is lawful within its 
sphere, each is sufficient unto itself, but the spheres 
are wholly distinct, we are told. This, however, is a 
retreat, not a victory for Christianity. It is a return 
on its intellectual side to the monastic life. It is a 
confession that the world is too much for it, whereas 
the Master declared : "Be of good cheer ; I have over- 
come the world." 

It must not be so. A bold stand outside or a timid 
stand inside the truth is no presage of the best re- 
sults for the moral and religious life of man. All 
truth is one. The Christian ideas and conceptions 



4 MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 

must claim citizenship in the universal kingdom of 
truth. If any of these ideas are spurious coins in 
the general circulation of the world's religious mar- 
ket, the sooner we know it the better. No Christian 
believer can afford to claim exemption from the rules 
of war for any of his beliefs so long as he is in a 
hostile country. 

2. Our purpose is to survey the line of Christian 
defenses in view of the present need. We urge no 
hard and fast distinction between Apologetics and 
Christian Evidences. One usually deals with the 
philosophic and the other with the historical and 
practical lines of proof. We are concerned chiefly 
with Christian evidences, although in some degree 
we must look at the situation in both fields. 

3. The task of the defender of Christianity may be 
summed up as follows : It is to establish the Christian 
positions by means of the principles of investigation 
employed by the opposition, so far as those principles 
are valid. The defense, in the nature of the case, to 
be effective, must be in terms of the attack. Of course 
it is open to the Christian apologist to show that other 
principles of investigation are equally valid and legiti- 
mate. But history shows that onslaughts against the 
faith are rarely formidable except when they claim 
the backing and support of great and universal prin- 
ciples. Anything over and above these is usually 
outward trappings which have an ugly look only. 
They are, as Mr. Huxley says of certain imposing 



THE INDUCTIVE METHOD 5 

words, like the bearskin caps worn by grenadiers to 
make them look ferocious. 

4. Now the principles which are invoked in sup- 
port of the conclusions of current anti-Christian views 
are those of some one or other of the current philoso- 
phic systems, and those of the inductive method. The 
philosophic views are to be examined in order as we 
proceed. Inductive logic first studies facts and from 
these draws conclusions. It does not lay down a 
proposition which must be true and then set out in 
quest of evidence to prove it. On the contrary it in- 
sists rigorously upon the reverse of this. First get 
the facts. Conscientiously, dispassionately, heroically, 
and even stoically gather and systematize the facts it 
enjoins upon us. Hypothesis and verification are the 
mental processes employed. The hypothesis may 
arise in various ways. It may be, as Dr. Wace ex- 
presses it, a "sort of prophetic induction," 1 or as Mr. 
Froude says, it may be nothing but "an imperfect 
generalization caught up by a predisposition." 2 For, 
be it remembered, there are no unbiased people in the 
world. The "judicial" attitude of mind does not 
mean a disinterested attitude. No man ever investi- 
gated arching without a predisposition in favor of 
something. This is well. Truth cannot be found 
otherwise. A being without a predisposition might 
indeed exist in the form of a petrified man, but not 
as flesh and blood. 

6. But the chief point to keep in mind about the 
hypothesis, or theory, is that it is to be cast aside for 



6 MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 

one that is better the moment the facts indicate the 
existence of a better. It is the truceless and eternal 
war of facts against superstition, predisposition, bias, 
and error which science undertakes to wage. This in- 
ductive method is pursued in physical science every- 
where, and in the social sciences also, in economics, 
civics, sociology, and now at length in ethics and re- 
ligion. Evolution and criticism both erect their intel- 
lectual structures with the stones blasted in the 
quarry of the inductive method. 

We have no option as defenders of Christianity. Of 
all men we must not turn our faces away from an en- 
terprise which first of all sets out in quest of facts. 
We hold that eternal facts, the most solid of all real- 
ities, are the contents of our Christian faith. We 
maintain that the only adequate hypothesis to account 
for a vast mass of facts is the Christian hypothesis, 
and that verification in all its legitimate forms in 
the personal and moral realm may be applied to the 
hypothesis successfully. 

7. So far we stand on common ground with the 
scientist. Our science, we should rather say, perhaps, 
is as real as any other science. There are, moreover, 
other things we hold in common with science — certain 
starting points or assumptions. Let us glance at 
them. One of these is the principle of unity. The 
world is one, not many. Somewhere is to be found 
a force or principle or bond which unites all things. 
This is essential to thought, a first principle of all 



ASSUMPTIONS 7 

modern research. Neither science nor philosophy will 
dispute this point, but rather welcome it. 

We also assume the reality and worth of the moral 
life of man. Observe that we are not taking religion 
for granted, though we might assume it in some sense, 
but only morality. Some materialists dispute the 
moral view of man. We deal with his objection in 
our chapter on Materialism, and thereby so far relax 
the requirement of the assumption. We cannot de- 
vote the volume to materialism. So we start with the 
moral assumption. Most disbelievers in evangelical 
Christianity agree with us here. Professor Huxley 
says : "I protest that if some great power would agree 
to make me always think what is true and do what is 
right, on condition of being turned into a sort of 
clock, and wound up every morning before I got out 
of bed, I should instantly close with the offer." 3 Such 
an arrangement would scarcely be "moral" in the 
strict sense, but the declaration, with others by Pro- 
fessor Huxley, indicates his recognition of the need 
and worth of the moral life. Thus also J. S. Mill 
was a staunch advocate of the ethical ideal while de- 
nying its necessary connection with religion.* We 
also take for granted the trustworthiness of normal 
human reason and the reality of things external to 
ourselves. As Dr. W. N. Clarke says, we live "in an 
honest world." The testimony of our senses and of 
our mental and moral powers may be relied upon. 
When it has really worked out its problems human 
reason does find truth. What we are saying implies 



8 MODEBN CHBISTIAN EVIDENCES 

that we accept as a fact the existence of the world 
about us. Matter and force are real existences. 

We also assume personality. This point requires at- 
tention. What we call personality, including self- 
consciousness, intelligence, and will, is as real a datum 
of experience as any known to us. Mind states are 
indeed better known to us than chemical processes. 
The world of persons about us is as definite a fact 
as the world of things. The man who assumes before- 
hand that only matter and force exist in the world as 
a whole is guilty of the same error as that of the 
chemist who might determine beforehand to find only 
oxygen in water. The importance of this point for 
our discussion will appear later. 

8. These are the leading points which we take for 
granted. Let us observe next what is the scientific 
ideal and how it is to be realized. We shall let Prof. 
Huxley, in his Lay Sermons, furnish the statement of 
it. He asserts that to "learn what is true in order to 
do what is right is the summing up of the whole duty 
of man, for all who are unable to satisfy their mental 
hunger with the east wind of authority." 5 To learn 
what is true and to do what is right is surely an ac- 
ceptable proposition. He is praising Des Cartes as 
the founder of the modern scientific method in the 
"lay sermon" containing the above language. He 
goes on to show that in his Discourse on Method Des 
Cartes blazed out the straight and narrow way of 
science, which surely leads to the city of Knowledge. 
"There is a path that leads to truth so surely that 



THE SCIENTIFIC IDEAL 9 

anyone who will follow it must needs reach the goal, 
whether his capacity be great or small. And there 
is one guiding rule by which a man may always find 
this path, and keep himself from straying when he 
has found it. This golden rule is — give unqualified 
assent to no propositions but those the truth of which 
is so clear and distinct that they cannot be doubted." 8 
The foregoing is the substance of the Cartesian 
teaching, and according to Professor Huxley "the 
great first commandment of science." 

We may accept the above deliverance with cer- 
tain qualifications. As an ideal the statement is 
admirable, but as a practical rule of procedure it 
is not. There are some things accepted without 
qualification by science which can be doubted and 
are as a matter of fact doubted every day. The Law 
of Universal Causation is one of these. Since 
Hume's day men have doubted it, yet it is the cor- 
ner stone of science. The Uniformity of Nature is 
another proposition which science unreservedly ac- 
cepts. Yet Professor Huxley himself says that we 
hold this proposition not as one which cannot be 
doubted, but as a "great act of faith." 

And this leads to the next statement, which is, 
that in natural science and in religious and moral 
science there are ultimate beliefs which are not of 
such a nature that they "cannot be doubted," and 
which are nevertheless held tenaciously as truth. Tf 
all knowledge is to become "so clear and distinct 
that it cannot be doubted" before we accept it, then 



10 MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 

no propositions except self-evident truths are worthy 
of belief; which is absurd. 

9. Now the important thing to keep in mind 
from our present standpoint is that these ultimate 
beliefs of science are not one whit more certain or 
sure than the ultimate beliefs of religion. It is on 
this point that the popular mind is most confused. 
•We took for granted the existence of matter and 
force, and we took for granted also personality. Now 
as the mind of man begins to range abroad in 
thought it may take any direction it chooses, but at 
the end of its reasoning it will be confronted by a 
double option, by alternative choices. The mind 
may delve in matter, and reason only about physical 
nature, but when it comes to the end it may con- 
clude that all is matter ; or on the other hand when 
it remembers personality and the spiritual part of 
man, it may conclude that all is spirit. So also if 
it pursues its investigation in the realm of the per- 
sonal and spiritual. A man's conclusion may de- 
pend upon his "will to believe," and this will often 
be determined by the "interest" which previous 
training has awakened in him. 

Now let it be made clear that science as such has 
nothing to do with the one or the other conclusion, 
the conclusion which affirms matter and denies spirit, 
or that which affirms spirit and denies matter, which 
asserts or denies God. Science looks only at the 
facts of nature or the facts of man's moral and re- 
ligious activities. When the ultimate beliefs arise 



REALITY OF RELIGIOUS FACTS 11 

they are due to the religious or the philosophic 
reason at work upon the facts of science. Of course 
both scientist and theologian have a right to reason 
in this way, if they are careful to remember where 
science ends and philosophy begins. 

10. It is very important also to remember that 
the facts which physical science deals with are no 
more real than those of moral and religious science. 
The fact, for example, of chemical coherence or af- 
finity among substances is no more real than the fact 
of logical coherence of thoughts. The attraction of 
gravitation between bodies is no more real than the 
attraction of affection between persons. The force 
of steam which propels the engine is no more actual 
than the force of will which constructed the engine. 
The progressive unfolding of an egg into a bird 
which can fly has no greater claim to our acceptance 
than the progressive unfolding of a thought into a 
system which conquers men. These groups of facts 
are equally valid. Each group can be reasoned about. 
Science can deal with either. One group clusters 
about matter and force, the other around personality 
and spirit. But we must rigidly insist that the data 
of spirit are really data; that is to say, they are 
"given" to us as truly as are those of matter. 
Reasoning about them labors under no greater disa- 
bility than reasoning about physical nature. Con- 
clusions about them may be buttressed as strongly 
as any other conclusions. 

11. There is, however, a subtle persuasion in 



12 MODEEN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 

many minds that somehow the conclusions and gen- 
eralizations growing out of the study of physical 
nature are more reliable than those which result from 
the investigation of the moral and spiritual. This 
conclusion is unfounded. Some facts about nature 
lie on the surface, indeed, and are far better under- 
stood than others which lie deep below the surface. 
But this is also true of moral and spiritual facts. In 
chemistry the constitutent parts of water can be set 
forth in an exact formula and easily verified, but 
the ultimate nature and constitution of oxygen and 
hydrogen no chemist can tell. In like manner the 
formula of conduct can be expressed in terms of 
right and wrong, with the certainty, when carried 
out, of a given result in character; but there may 
be endless dispute as to the ultimate basis of right 
and wrong. There are varying degrees of certainty 
in both realms. Verification may be perfect or only 
approximately so in the one as in the other. Law 
and order prevail in both. Things occur together or 
follow each other in a uniform way in both de- 
partments. Or, to use the technical language, coex- 
istences and sequences present themselves for investi- 
gation in the religious and moral realm as in the 
material; and verification, after the manner of the 
department, is possible in each. 

12. There is one respect, indeed, in which the 
investigation of moral and spiritual facts possess 
an advantage over research in the physical order. 
This is that in the moral realm we examine in very 



MENTAL FACTS KNOWN BEST 13 

large part what takes place within while in the other 
we study events without our own nature. "I think, 
therefore, I am," was the starting point of Des 
Cartes. The existence of thought at least is an 
ultimate fact. I know this more certainly than I 
know the existence of the boulder lying a few feet 
away from me. When we come to deal with faith 
and repentance and the evidence for Christianity 
found in religious experience, as we shall do in the 
third division of our discussion, we shall deal with 
facts which, for Christians at least, are attended 
with the highest degree of certainty. Of course we 
may reason incorrectly about them. This remains 
to be seen. But upon this point of advantage we do 
not here insist. The matter which we now urge is 
that our field of inquiry be recognized by the votaries 
of physical science. There is no conflict of interest 
or method. There ought to be sympathetic co-opera- 
tion at every point. 

13. The diverse conclusions of the physical scien- 
tist on the one hand and those of moral and relig- 
ious science on the other are doubtless in great part 
due to the element in which thought moves. The 
study of physical facts has a tendency to blind men 
to the spiritual order, while very likely minds which 
exercise themselves chiefly with personal and spirit- 
ual matters do not always appreciate the full force 
of reasoning in the other department. As the hand 
takes the color of the dye it is steeped in, so the mind 
is subdued to the element it works in. This is a nat- 



14 MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 

ural law which will operate uniformly unless checked 
by the action of some other law. The grist which 
goes into the mill of the reason is not changed in 
its essential nature when it comes out. Mr. Darwin, 
as is well known, lost interest in poetry and music, 
because, as he said, his mind became a sort of mill 
for grinding out general truths from large masses 
of physical facts. But the subjects in which the 
biologist lost his interest did not thereby lose their 
standing. 

14. How, then, is the dispute to be settled be- 
tween the man who finds only matter at the end of 
his researches and the man who finds God there? 
Mr. Haeckel, as he tells us in the Riddle of the Uni- 
verse, cannot rise above matter, and Mr. Fiske in 
his Through Nature to God reaches an opposite con- 
clusion. If these men are equally competent investi- 
gators, and each pursues the true scientific method, 
who is to determine which is right? Or are we to 
leave the question undetermined and conclude that 
we do not and cannot know? Men will not rest in 
the agnostic attitude. History is conclusive on this 
point. There is one and only one way to settle the 
controversy. That is to push the question further 
back and ask which view best accounts for all the 
facts in both departments of investigation, the facts 
of the personal as well as the facts of the physical 
realm. In other words the principle of unity will 
determine the final result. This principle is funda- 



UNITY THROUGH PERSONALITY 13 

mental to thought and is held by science and philoso- 
phy as an axiom. 

15. Now we maintain that the only bond of unity 
which will meet all the requirements is the bond of 
personality. No impersonal principle will answer. 
This will appear in the next few chapters. The 
reason of man is inevitably gravitating towards this 
conclusion. Nowhere does it find a secure resting 
place for the sole of its foot short of this. 

"Very well, then/' it may be urged, "you may con- 
clude that the ultimate ground of the world is a Per- 
son, but can you claim that your conclusion is scien- 
tifically valid?" The reply is that it possesses as 
great scientific validity as any of the ultimate be- 
liefs of physical science itself. Like those conclu- 
sions, it is an inference from the data supplied by 
science, and has not the clearness and convincing 
quality of the self-evident proposition. 

16. Mr. Huxley himself does not adhere to his 
own principles rigidly. His "great first command- 
ment of science" was that we are "to give unquali- 
fied assent to no propositions but those the truth of 
which is so clear and distinct that they cannot be 
doubted." This he declared in his "lay sermon" on 
Des Cartes. But in other writings in his Evolution 
and Ethics and his Method and Results, he adopts a 
very different tone. Referring to the great general 
assumptions of science, such as the Law of Universal 
Causation and the Uniformity of Nature, he says: 
"If there is anything in the world which I do 



16 MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 

firmly believe in, it is the universal validity of the 
law of causation, but that universality cannot be 
proved by any amount of experience." 7 This is what 
Hume said about miracles, it will be remembered. In 
another place he says, "They are neither self-evident 
nor are they strictly speaking demonstrable." 8 Profes- 
sor Huxley goes even further in his Science and 
Christian Tradition and talks like a believer in 
Christianity: "The ground of every one of our ac- 
tions, and the validity of all our reasonings rest upon 
the great act of faith, which leads us to take the ex- 
perience of the past as a safe guide in our dealings 
with the present and future." 9 In view of the situa- 
tion in both departments, therefore, there is no need 
that we bandy words with physical science as to ulti- 
mate beliefs. Science is founded upon unproved first 
truths, hypotheses or assumptions; in other words, 
it rests on "the great act of faith." 

17. Our purpose in succeeding chapters, then, is to 
show that the preponderance of evidence from the 
facts is overwhelmingly in favor of the view that the 
ground of all things is a Person, and that that Per- 
son has spoken to mankind in and through Jesus 
Christ. There are four classes of facts for which 
this is the only adequate and satisfactory hypothesis. 
The first class of facts is presented in physical na- 
ture, the second in the New Testament revelation, the 
third in religious experience, and the fourth in Chris- 
tian history. 

18. In Part I we deal with theories which oppose 



REVELATION AND EXPERIENCE 17 

the Christian and theistic view, concluding with the 
evidences for the existence of God from the material 
universe. The conclusion that the unseen architect 
of the world is a Person at once gives rise to the ex- 
pectation that he will reveal himself. 

19. In Part II the historic facts of the revelation 
through Christ are examined with especial reference 
to his Person and work. This is the most extended 
portion of the book. It lies at the heart of the evi- 
dences for Christianity. The discussion of the au- 
thenticity and genuineness of the Gospels is placed at 
the end of this division of our subject for the reason 
that the reasoning in the earlier parts is to a very 
great extent independent of the critical theories. That 
is to say, the Gospel records as they stand furnish 
data which we may employ as the basis of conclusions 
which in turn receive further support from the results 
of the critical examination at the end. 

20. In Part III we have introduced an innovation 
in general discussions of Christian evidences and have 
employed Christian experience as an important evi- 
dence of Christianity. This form of evidence appeals 
with irresistible force to men and women who "know 
whom they have believed;" and at the same time it 
is, as Mr. Romanes asserted, a class of facts open to 
the investigation of all seekers for the truth, and 
should be allowed its proper weight in determining 
the result. 

21. In Part IY we devote a few chapters to the 
evidence of history. To many minds this is a form of 



18 MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 

proof which has the greatest cogency. The subject is 
of course presented only in outline in so brief a 
space. The chapter on Mohammedanism and Bud- 
dhism is given as an illustration of the comparative 
method of viewing Christ and Christianity. The clos- 
ing discussion of Christianity as the answer to man's 
total religious need embodies the general conclusion. 
22. The argument is, of course, cumulative. Each 
line of evidence is reinforced by all the others. We 
have not, and cannot have, in this field, demonstration 
in the mathematical sense. Yet the evidences of 
Christianity produce a practical certainty so great 
that it not only leaves the mind satisfied, but girds 
it for the highest moral achievement. Three consid- 
erations inspire the conviction that the Christian 
view of God and the world will prevail. The first is 
that intellectually it meets the requirements of the 
problem as well as any other view, and, for all except 
those who reject the supernatural, it meets them far 
better. The second is that morally and spiritually it 
is incomparably superior to all other theories. The 
third consideration lies in the union of these two: 
man's intellectual and moral natures are ultimately 
one. The moral imperative of his nature and the in- 
tellectual imperative will be found to be essentially 
harmonious in the end. Thus the demand for unity 
within man's nature answers to the demand for unity 
in the external world. Both unities are provided for 
in the Christian view which recognizes not only a 
divine Person behind nature, but a divine enterprise 



THE ARGUMENT CUMULATIVE 19 

of redemption in human history. The metaphysical 
God of theism thus becomes the missionary and moral 
God of historic time establishing his kingdom among 
men. 



CHAPTER II. 

PANTHEISM. 

23. From, the beginning of human history so far 
as we know it earnest minds have been deeply inter- 
ested in the question: How came the world to be 
what it is ? What is the key to the mystery of being ? 
What is the final truth and explanation of the world ? 
The intellectual as well as the moral and religious 
demands of man's nature make it impossible for him 
to avoid these questions. 

24. Various answers have been given. The view 
of the Christian believer is familiar to all. For him 
the only answer is God. Jesus Christ the revealer of 
God has satisfied his heart and mind completely and 
his soul is at rest. Our chief task will be to examine 
the evidence for this revelation made by Jesus Christ. 
But first we must consider the question, although with 
much brevity, from the standpoint of those who do 
not accept the Christian revelation. In so doing we 
are limited to the evidence afforded by the world about 
us and the world within us. We must confine our- 
selves to facts as we know them for the basis of any 
theory of the world which we may offer. Science 
warns us constantly that guesses or mere preferences 
are not enough. Something actually "given" to us or 

20 



TWO ELEMENTS OF FACT 21 

ascertained by us is the only solid rock on which 
a theory may safely rest. In all theories built thus on 
facts there may be, as Professor Huxley has said, 
somewhat of the venture of faith. This is equally 
true, however, of non-Christian as well as Christian 
theories. The point insisted upon now is the neces- 
sity for a fact foundation for all theories. 

25. What, then, is the world of fact? Kocks, hills, 
trees, animals, clouds, planets, stars and suns are 
facts. The world about us is a great world of fact. 
But there is another world within us, our thoughts, 
feelings, acts of will, our self-consciousness ; in short 
our human personality, the inner world as contrasted 
with the outward is also a world of fact. We know 
things about us and things within us. 

These two worlds of fact may be further dis- 
tinguished as the world of matter and the world of 
spirit. Really these are the only two things we know 
if we except moral good and evil. Matter may be 
subdivided further into force and motion, or into 
atoms and molecules, but at last it remains just the 
world of matter. So also the world of spirit may be 
regarded as thought, or as will, or as feeling, or as 
self-consciousness. In all these, however, it is the 
world of spirit and nothing else. 

26. We have spoken of the two worlds. But in 
reality are they two ? Is there any way of regarding 
mind so as to make it virtually the same as matter, or 
vice versa? Now this question brings us at a bound 
into the very heart of the present discussion 



22 PANTHEISM 

in the scientific and philosophic world. The prin- 
ciple of unity is that which here controls the thinking 
of men. Our minds by their very make demand 
unity. They insist upon an ultimate One of some 
kind from which other things proceed. If we see and 
know two things the mind will ask which of the two 
is first and which second in order of time and im- 
portance. Or is there a third something behind the 
two things we know which is itself the ultimate One 
we are seeking? What is the first cause, the uncaused 
existence which is deeper than all that is dependent 
and finite within us and about us? 

It is this problem which has given rise to the 
various theories of the universe. These theories we 
are now to examine, at least the representative types 
of them. The merits of each will have to be tested 
by its adherence to known facts and by the truthful- 
ness of its inferences from these facts, and by the de- 
gree of completeness with which it takes account of 
the facts. 

27. It is to be observed at the outset that the theo- 
ries themselves may be divided into two great classes. 
First, those which take as their starting point the 
facts of the world of matter ; and, second, those which 
take as that starting point the facts of the world of 
persons. Those which begin below the personal plane 
of course give their own explanation of the origin of 
personality. Those which begin on the personal plane 
likewise seek to explain the world of matter below. 
The issue is between these two classes of theories. 



SPINOZA AND PANTHEISM 23 

Which on the whole commends itself to our acceptance 
as an explanation of the totality of things? 

We shall examine Pantheism, which unifies all 
things in a single substance ; Materialism, which also 
seeks to explain all things by a single principle, which 
it finds in matter ; Agnosticism, which denies the pos- 
sibility of our knowing the ultimate reality of exist- 
ence ; Evolution, the current scientific view of nature, 
which is also employed in much of the philosophy of 
our day; and Theism, which regards the first cause 
of the world, as a Person who dwells in all things and 
is at the same time above all created things. 

28. There are many varieties of modern pantheism 
which we have not space to examine. The best form 
of it to exhibit its essential nature and tendencies is 
that of Benedict Spinoza, who was born in 1632 in 
Amsterdam. He is the father of modern pantheism. 
More than any other he imparted the impulse to the 
modern pantheistic way of thinking. 

We may approach pantheism by indicating the need 
for which it is intended to provide. The mind finds 
it difficult to think of a God above nature, from whom 
nature proceeded by an act of creation. Such a God 
seems to be simply a mechanic who has constructed 
a machine and left it to itself to run its course. Be- 
sides it is not easy to grasp the idea of creation, how 
a world can be called into being from nothing. Then, 
too, our religious nature craves fellowship with God. 
It yearns for a God not far away, but near, to whom 
man can speak as friend to friend. 



24 PANTHEISM 

Pantheism tries to overcome these difficulties which 
the mind and heart of man encounter as he seeks an 
explanation of the world. It begins, as already re- 
marked, with the quest for unity. It tries to find a 
way to bridge the chasm between matter and spirit, 
and make of the two things one thing. The difficulty 
of this undertaking is apparent at a glance. For cer- 
tainly our bodies seem to be very distinct from our 
minds, and the great and mighty world about us 
seems to be far removed in essential nature from the 
inward operation of spirit, such as thought, and feel- 
ing and will. 

29. Spinoza offered as the key to the difficulty the 
idea of substance. There is but one real thing, and 
that thing exists in itself and by itself. It needs 
nothing else to explain it. "This it is the conception 
of which needs no other conception in order that it 
may be conceived/' 1 This one and universal substance 
is the real ground of everything else. 

We are of course familiar with more than one thing. 
We know at least two, mind and matter, and we know 
both of these under many varieties of form and ap- 
pearance. How are we to account for these two 
things and their varieties, things so very diverse in 
nature and appearance, if in reality there is but one 
thing? Pantheism answers: Matter and mind are 
simply attributes of the one substance. This sub- 
stance, as infinite and perfect, has every attribute of 
perfection. But as we are limited and finite we have 
knowledge of but two of these attributes. One at- 



PANTHEISM AND NATUKE 25 

tribute that we know is "thought," the other is "ex- 
tension." These are not opposite and contradictory 
things, says pantheism. They are rather different 
aspects of the same thing, the eternal substance, and 
belong to its very essence. 

Again, says pantheism, matter or extension exists 
in modes. Matter may be at rest or in motion. So 
also thought; the modes of thought are intellect and 
will. All modes and all attributes belong to the 
one substance. They have no separate and no inde- 
pendent existence. 

30. What becomes of the visible world, the 
cosmos, under a pantheistic view? As a thing exist- 
ing apart and for itself it vanishes altogether. Every- 
thing we see is eternal because everything is an at- 
tribute or mode of the eternal substance. Yet noth- 
ing we see is eternal because everything we know is 
a passing phase of the eternal. These passing phases 
will give place to other passing phases. They will 
"have their day and cease to be." Men, families, 
civilizations, solar systems, these are but phantom 
forms which stalk across the stage of the universe 
and vanish into eternal oblivion. 

31. What view of God does pantheism hold? For 
one thing God is no more nor greater than the sum 
total of things. He is the ground of all things. 
He is just the essence of which mind and matter, 
with their modes, are the attributes. He did not 
create the world, because essentially he is the world. 
The world is not an effect of which God is the cause 



26 PANTHEISM 

for the same reason that we would not say a man 
is the cause of his own hand or other organ of his 
body. If we think of God as cause of the universe 
it is only "as the apple is the cause of its red color, 
as milk is the cause of whiteness, sweetness and 
liquidness, and not as the father is the cause of the 
child's existence or even as the sun is the cause of 
the heat." 2 

Again, God is not a person, for personality implies 
limitation, according to pantheism. I know myself 
only in contrast with something not myself. This 
limitation is essential to the idea of personality, 
urges pantheism, and hence it cannot belong to 
God. 8 

32. This then is the mark of pantheism ; it insists 
that there is but one real and abiding existence. In 
recent philosophy this attempt to resolve all diverse 
things into one is known as Monism. Pantheism 
is essentially monistic. It cannot tolerate any form 
of dualism save that of external appearance. Prop- 
erly understood the world is one, not two or more. 
All the variety we see in the world is a manifesta- 
tion, in one form or another, of the one eternal 
substance. By an inner law peculiar to itself this 
substance is capable of this varied expression. Ac- 
cording to Spinoza thought is one attribute of sub- 
stance, but personality is not. The universal sub- 
stance is impersonal. 

33. What shall be said of pantheism? Can we 
accept it? We cannot. Yet we may admit at once 



IS PANTHEISM TENABLE! 27 

that in certain respects it has a fascination for many 
minds. It seems to unify the world so simply, for 
one thing. All the puzzles and contradictions, at 
first sight, seem to vanish. It agrees with theism 
in its insistence upon the divine indwelling in the 
world. It relieves the problem of evil of some of 
its darker aspects. Evil is temporary ; it is a passing 
phase of the world, a section of the panorama of be- 
ing, which we now behold. But in time it may dis- 
appear altogether. So reasons pantheism. Thus men 
may be induced to submit if not encouraged to aspire. 
Pantheism may breed a certain stoic type of endur- 
ance if it cannot produce heroes of achievement. 

34. But let us try pantheism by the tests we 
have indicated, its conformity to the facts as we 
know them. Observation and science give us at 
least two facts as we have seen, matter and mind. 
But neither observation nor science shows us how 
these two may be merged into one. Neither has ever 
been transformed into the other so far as our science 
teaches. There is undoubtedly something somewhere 
under which they may be reconciled or harmonized if 
not made identical. But that this is a substance of 
which they are attributes there is no evidence. A 
divine will is the more probable explanation. 

As a hypothesis to account for the two facts mind 
and matter, pantheism manipulates the facts as we 
know them. It does not leave matter and mind 
distinct, but makes them coalesce into the one sub- 
stance, and thus violates a first principle of science, 



28 PANTHEISM 

which requires us to leave facts as we find them. 
Dualism is true in a relative, if not in an absolute 
way. Our philosophy must not force the two things 
together. It is conceivable that an apple and a 
6tone might, if we were wise enough, be explained in 
exactly similar terms as to their essential nature. 
But even then we would go on recognizing the prac- 
tical distinction between them. Until then we cer- 
tainly must not make unwarranted assertions and 
most of all concerning things so diverse as mind 
and matter. 

35. Again, pantheism denies the relation of cause 
and effect. Yet the active and passive sides of nature 
are recognized. Spinoza adopted some Latin phrases 
to express this distinction. This shows that the law 
of causation on which science builds must find place 
even in a pantheistic scheme, although the name is 
changed. 

36. Once more, pantheism leaves us facing as 
profound a mystery as theism. The inner principle 
of its universal and eternal substance, by which it 
manifests itself in many modes and moods, as man 
and animal, plant and planet, is an unfathomable 
mystery. How the substance can appear in a variety 
of ways is as profound a secret as the creative act 
of theism. Besides the inner principle of change 
added to the substance gives us two things after all. 

37. In another way pantheism errs. Spinoza 
began with a substance, which was essentially thought, 
as the basis of his theory, agreeing in this with Des 



LOTZE ON PERSONALITY 29 

Cartes. But here again he departed from known 
facts. We know thought not by itself, but in connec- 
tion with will and feeling and self-consciousness. 
That is to say, we know thought only as personal, 
as an attribute of personality. You cannot thus tear 
a fact away from its connection with other facts, ab- 
stract it, as we say, and build upon that. If panthe- 
ism recognizes thought it must recognize personality 
also. 

This leads to the remark that our idea of unity 
also is derived from ourselves. So also is our idea 
of substance. The one substance we know best, the 
one permanent thing which has attributes, is our 
own selves. From this example of the many at- 
tributes in one underlying substance the pantheist 
passes out into nature and thinks he finds a similar 
substance with attributes. In thus borrowing his 
conception of unity from his own personality and 
denying personality in the great unifying substance 
he is inconsistent. 

38. Why does pantheism deny personality in God? 
Because, as we have stated, personality implies limi- 
tation. The self must have a not-self in order to 
become conscious, it is urged. There must be some- 
thing outside of us for us to resist, so to speak, in 
order that we may become fully aware of our own 
personality. The philosopher Lotze has given the 
best answer to this. Very briefly and inadequately 
stated, Lotze's view is: Only imperfect personality 
requires this external stimulus. Men grow towards 



30 PANTHEISM 

a personality which is not in need of a not-self to 
develop it or maintain it. The need of the not-self 
at first is incidental. It ceases by and by. An elec- 
tric current from without may be required at first to 
arouse a diseased nerve, but when health is restored 
the nerve has life and feeling within and of itself. 
So of personality. The divine personality needs no 
outside or finite influence to keep it alive. 4 Whether 
this reasoning is sound or not it remains true that 
personality is the highest known form of perfection. 
As we shall soon see, there are other and most weighty 
objections to denying personality in God. 

39. One objection appears the moment we come 
to consider the moral life of man. Morality is im- 
possible in a pantheistic view of the world. If man 
is a part of God and not a personal being distinct 
from God, his acts are God's acts. Sin, as Spinoza 
held, is simply privation, partial existence, this and 
no more. What a man does is necessitated, not 
freely chosen. The universal substance does not 
admit of free moral choice. All happenings are sim- 
ply the outbreakings of this substance on the surface 
of things. We think we are free, but this is illusion. 
Human life is like plant life, variegated, rich, won- 
derful, but without responsibility for good or evil. 
A beautiful character deserves no more credit for its 
moral attractiveness than a pansy for its varied hues. 
The history of men is like the history of plants, 
necessitated by an inner principle. There is no moral 
history but only natural history. Practically carried 



PANTHEISM AND RELIGION 31 

out pantheism would lead to moral chaos in human 
society. All restraint would be removed. Men would 
simply drift along the lines of least resistance and 
we know whither this would lead. 

40. On the religious side also pantheism fails. 
Spinoza was influenced by a religious motive, but in 
the end he sacrificed the religious to the speculative 
interest. Pantheism cannot be a religion. Fellow- 
ship betwen persons is the core of religion. An im- 
personal substance cannot serve this end. Pantheism 
borrows from theism the moment it admits fellow- 
ship or any other of the distinctive blessings of the 
religious life. 

41. Now the facts of man's moral and religious 
consciousness are all directly opposed to pantheism. 
We know we are free and responsible. Consciousness 
teaches this. Pantheism is shattered on the rock of 
consciousness. We firmly believe that we have fellow- 
ship with God. This only saves us from despair in 
our deepest sin and suffering. All our moral strug- 
gles are based on this. It was said of Cowper, the 
afflicted poet but strong Christian, whose faith sus- 
tained him more than all else, 

"When one by one sweet sounds and wandering lights 
departed 

He wore no less a loving face because so broken- 
hearted." 8 
Only thus comes triumph over earthly ills, only 

thus comes high achievement. If we are a part of 

a blind, purposeless substance which "blunders in 



32 PANTHEISM 

our blundering and is stupid in our stupidity," and 
which sins in our sinning, it boots little to talk of 
"thought" as pertaining to that substance. Prac- 
tically this theory of an impersonal purposeless sub- 
stance is the same as materialism and fatalism in 
effect. Thus the distinction between "what is" and 
"what ought to be" vanishes. But if, as theism 
teaches, God is a holy person and man distinct from 
him and responsible to him, then sin may be con- 
demned, repudiated, overcome. Then all glorious 
moral and spiritual attainment is possible. 

42. We now conclude: Pantheism fails, because 
it ignores so many facts of science and of human 
consciousness; because it forces a solution at points 
where the problem as yet seems insoluble; because 
while it moves far away from a fact basis for its 
theory it leaves us with as many unfathomable mys- 
teries as ever ; and because it is content with affirma- 
tion instead of demonstration. Thus at no point- 
science, philosophy, ethics or religion — is it a satisfac- 
tory explanation of the world. 



CHAPTER III. 

MATERIALISM. 

43. We have seen how pantheism ends the quest 
for unity. It does so by asserting that there is but 
one substance, and that matter and mind are simply 
modes of its manifestation, the inside and outside of 
the substance, so to speak. There are two other ways 
of regarding the world which are closely akin to 
pantheism. One takes the pantheistic principle of 
thought and the other the pantheistic principle of 
extension, and through these a solution is sought. 
Out of the principle of thought arises the tneory of 
Idealism, and from that of extension or matter comes 
Materialism. We are chiefly concerned here with 
Materialism, but before beginning our discussion of 
it we must glance at Idealism. 

44. We have not space to trace Idealism from 
Kant and Hegel onward to the present time, or to 
give more than the briefest statement of its exist- 
ing modified forms. Idealism finds the unifying 
principle of the world in thought. Everything which 
exists is thought. Thought and existence are identi- 
cal. Matter, if we but view it properly, is thought 
and nothing else. Cause and effect which we ob- 
serve in the world of matter are really a mental ideal, 



34 MATEEIALISM 

which we bring to matter ourselves. Space which we 
see all about us is also a way of regarding matter 
which the mind itself creates. As you might gather 
fruit and drop it in a bag, so the mind gathers the 
facts of the external world and drops them into the 
conception of space. Space is the envelope which 
the mind slips over all objects around it. This is 
true also of all the other forms of thought about 
material things. Thus with all our striving we never 
get at anything except ideas, or thought. Thus rea- 
sons Idealism. 

These ideas, however, are not merely our own ideas 
confined within the limits of our own minds. The 
world about us is not to be confounded with the 
world within us. This is not the kind of Idealism 
we are dealing with at present. The world about is 
too evident and actual for us to rest in this conclu- 
sion, says Idealism. The world exists actually out- 
side of us. If then there is nothing in the world but 
thought and if the world is not merely our thought 
about it but something more, what is it? The an- 
swer which Idealism gives is that the external world 
represents for us the thoughts of God. Indeed, Ideal- 
ism asserts, that world is the great thinker in the 
act of thinking his thoughts, and we are thinkers 
who think his thoughts after him. For example, I 
forget a name and keep trying till it comes to me. 
In such a case my real larger self below my present 
smaller self knew the name all the time and kept me 
dissatisfied till I found it. Now, says Idealism, all 



THOUGHT IDENTIFIED WITH THINGS 35 

mental activity is of this kind. If I search the stars 
I thereby exhibit some knowledge of the stars and 
imply a great deal more possible knowledge. But 
this knowledge which is possible to me must be actual 
to a larger self which includes me. All my future 
knowledge of the stars will be a-coming to myself 
in the larger and all-inclusive self. My mind then 
by its very constitution implies a larger mind. When 
I think of a thing as finite my thought implies the 
existence of an infinite and of a mind that is infinite. 
This infinite self, of which I am a part, we are told 
by Idealism, is God himself, who is a self-conscious 
person. Beginning thus with an idea nothing is 
found in the world about nor in the world above us 
but the one Being whose chief characteristic is 
ideas. 1 All the development of the world then is 
just a development of God's thought. There is an 
evolution going on, but it is simply the evolution of 
thought. 

Idealism contains much more than the above. I 
have sought merely to indicate its one constructive 
principle, its method of finding the object of all 
human thinking, a bond of unity for all existing 
things. 

45. We may say at once as to Idealism that it 
teaches a great truth. And that truth is that we 
never reach a place in the investigation of the world 
where thought is not. Thought is the web which we 
find interlaced in all created things. It is in the be- 
ginning and the end, and in all the space between. 



36 MATERIALISM 

The evidence of the presence of a Thinker every- 
where in the universe is most convincing. 

46. Yet the truth of Idealism is after all but a 
half-truth. Idealism frequently forces a unity where 
we do not find it. It repeats the mistake of panthe- 
ism in this. Idealism fails to make out the identity 
between matter and mind, between existence and 
thought. -We know mind in ourselves and we know 
matter about us and we know differences between 
them. One is extended and the other is inextended. 
The outside world, again, is the realm of necessity. 
Our inner world of mind is a world of freedom. If 
God is all, we may say again, then man is nothing. 
Idealism strives hard to do so, but fails to justify our 
belief that God and man are distinct and that each 
has worth for himself. At many points, indeed, Ideal- 
ism asserts that things are one where all experience 
teaches us that they are two. 

47. It is not necessary to reply at length to Ideal- 
ism. It is doing good service against Materialism 
as a philosophy and at some points has close contact 
with Christianity. Its weaknesses are those of panthe- 
ism which we have already examined. One point fur- 
ther is all we will add in reply. Idealism is essentially 
monistic. As such it encounters the difficulty of all 
thoroughgoing monistic views. That difficulty is the 
conflict between the theoretical and the practical in- 
terests of men. It serves no useful end to cancel the 
distinction between mind and matter. It is danger- 
ous to attempt to expunge from consciousness our. 



ATOMS, FORCE, AND MOTION 37 

sense of freedom and responsibility; and it is ruin- 
ous to annul our personality by merging man's per- 
sonality and God's into one. Dualism is a relative 
truth which no intellectual process has as yet been 
able to overcome. To force a solution by assuming 
some unifying principle regardless of practical con- 
sequences is not a proceeding which seems to be de- 
sirable, and leads to many evil results. 

48. It is next in order to consider Materialism. 
Idealism, as we have seen, began with the idea ; Ma- 
terialism begins with the atom. As a house is built 
of bricks, says Materialism, so the world is built of 
atoms. These atoms were originally in motion. This 
motion was not, however, uniform. It tended to de- 
flect some of the atoms away from the others. Thus 
difference arose and the world began. The idea of 
force is insisted upon also by materialists. 

Given matter and force, or matter, force and mo- 
tion, and the result is the world as we know it. The 
course of the development was not guided by intelli- 
gence, because intelligence comes late in the order of 
nature. Chance or fate or necessity was the law cf 
the unfolding of matter into the present orderly 
world. 

49. As to the human mind and consciousness Ma- 
terialism asserts that it also is the product of matter. 
We see gradations in matter up to mind, it is urged, 
and hence we are to infer that mind is just another 
gradation of matter. The brain acts on the mind 
and the mind on the brain. Things utterly unlike 



38 MATEBIALISM 

cannot thus act upon each other, says Materialism. 
It says further all ideas come from sensation; hence 
all ideas are material. Says a modern materialist: 
"Every student of nature must, if he thinks at all 
consistently, arrive at the conclusion that all those 
capacities which are comprehended under the name 
of the soul's activities are only functions of the brain 
substance, or, to express myself somewhat more coarse- 
ly, that thought stands in the same relation to brain 
as the gall to the liver." 2 It is clear that under a 
materialistic view a belief in the immortality of the 
soul can have no place. The anatomist's knife cuts 
the soul in pieces when it dissects the brain, or rather 
there is no soul left when the brain ceases to act. 

50. Materialism relies chiefly upon the law of the 
conservation of energy to justify itself. Throughout 
nature we find that force passes through many 
changes. By chemical action or otherwise forces ex- 
isting in one form are modified and reappear in other 
forms. According to this law thought and conscious- 
ness, as indicated, are simply the physical energy of 
the brain transformed. All that we call spiritual is 
thus the product of the physical, and there is nothing 
in the world but matter. Of course, Materialism 
denies the existence of a personal God. He is not 
needed. The world can be accounted for other- 
wise. 

Is Materialism a tenable theory of the world? It 
sometimes makes the astounding assertion that mod- 
ern science renders a verdict in its favor. This is an 



MATEEIALISM ASSUMES ATOMS 39 

unfounded statement, as we shall see. In its more 
recent forms Materialism has been of the psy- 
chological kind; it has been made to turn on the 
well-known connection between brain states and mind 
states, as already indicated. Our reply will therefore 
give some attention to this aspect of the theory. 

As with all other theories, so also with Material- 
ism, the primary consideration is the fact basis on 
which it is supposed to rest. Two things are given 
to us ; one we call matter, the other mind. The prob- 
lem is to explain all things by means of the data fur- 
nished by these two things and their various manifes- 
tations. Materialism, like pantheism and idealism, is 
monistic. It can tolerate but one thing as the ulti- 
mate fact and that one thing is of the nature of 
matter. 

51. To begin at the beginning we may say that 
Materialism is not warranted by the known facts 
of existence in supposing atoms to be the ultimate 
form of matter. No atom has ever come into the 
range of human vision by means of microscope or 
otherwise. It is an abstraction of the mind, invisible, 
intangible and falling entirely outside the realm of 
our verified knowledge. Mind, on the other hand, 
which is made use of as the fact foundation of the 
theory which opposes Materialism, is known to us 
immediately. We know mind as we know nothing 
else. We know it better than we know even the, 
grosser forms of matter which our eyes see and our 
hands handle. Thus it appears that Materialism is 



40 MATEEIALISM 

grossly inconsistent. While insisting that all our 
knowledge is through sense perception it explains 
the world first by the atom which sense perception 
knows nothing of, and second by a mental construc- 
tion, a theoretical creation in the realm of mind, 
which also lies outside of sense perception. Thus 
the atom which, according to Materialism, is the pre- 
historic invisible ancestor of all existing things, has 
at length begotten an invisible and intangible off- 
spring, known as thought; and this thought in turn 
has the marvelous power of tracing its way into the 
dim and shadowy past until it lights upon its unseen, 
unheard and unfelt ancestor, the atom. The result is 
not changed if- force is assumed instead of the atom 
as the original fountain of being. We see then that 
Materialism leaves the home of its nativity, the world 
of sense, and travels into a very far country in order 
to state its theory of the world. 

Thus materialism is dogmatic in its starting point. 
Its cardinal dogma is the atom, or force, or motion, 
or these together, each and all of which are mental 
constructions implying previously existing mind, and 
not merely things found in nature independent of 
mind. The mind is necessary at every point in the 
materialistic construction of the universe. 

52. We must here observe also that Materialism 
does not find a unitary principle anywhere in the 
universe of matter. Force and motion are necessary 
as well as atoms ; and science has so far knowledge of 
sixty or seventy elements or simple substances. Here 



MATERIALISM FAILS TO UNIFY 41 

we have multiplicity rather than unity. Materialism 
may reply at this point: "You are equally incon- 
sistent in seeking unity in personality; for person- 
ality has many elements and manifestations, such as 
will and feeling and moral consciousness." But we 
reply that while this is true, it is also true that the 
many are hound together into the one in our person- 
ality. Personal identity and memory prove this. All 
mental powers, as will, intellect, feeling, etc., are 
bound into one in the human individual. I am the 
same person today that I was ten or twenty years ago. 
My body may have not one material particle in it 
now which it possessed then, but my memory assures 
me that I, with all my past experiences, am the same. 
Thus we see that it is through personality that the 
idea of unity arises, and Materialism borrows from 
personality to explain the world, including person- 
ality, and then turns and devours its own offspring by 
denying personality. 

53. A further objection to Materialism is that 
it dogmatizes where science is silent. Materialism can- 
not allow any but its own theory of how life and feel- 
ing and consciousness and personality arise. All must 
come from matter through the transformation of 
energy. The generation of life can only be spontane- 
ous according to Materialism. Here science assert9 
nothing. Up to date spontaneous generation is not 
proved. Until it is proved true science makes no 
claim. Indeed, she enjoins her votaries to crucify 
the impulse to assert where facts do not warrant. "If 



42 MATERIALISM 

the right hand of thy eagerness or of thy prejudice 
cause thee to stumble by assertion without fact, cut 
it off," is the command of pure science. 

54. Consider next that there is no evidence that 
brain activity produces thought. Brain activity and 
mind activity are parallel facts. There is also, beyond 
question, a close connection of some kind between 
them. So much modern physiological psychology 
clearly shows, but no more. Thought may be a func- 
tion of brain in some sense, Professor James thinks, 
but there are various kinds of function. Arguing in 
favor of immortality against the materialists Pro- 
fessor James shows that the latter confound distinct 
things in their reasoning. The materialist says that 
mind is a function of matter; hence without a ma- 
terial brain no mental or spiritual life. "Without 
phosphorus no thought," says the materialist. But 
there are various kinds of function. There is "pro- 
ductive" function, as when the fire combined with 
water in the kettle produces steam. There is "releas- 
ing" function, as when the trigger of the cross-bow 
releases the string and lets fly the arrow. There is 
also "transmissive" function, as when the pipes of the 
organ transmit the air which results in sound. Now 
so far as science knows, the brain in its relation to 
thought may answer to the kettle, the trigger of the 
cross-bow or the pipes of the organ in relation to their 
respective objects. 8 

It follows from the above that we cannot assert 
that brain produces thought; it may merely transmit 



BRAIN PRODUCES NO THOUGHT 43 

or release it. There are very strong additional facts 
in favor of the latter view. The most important of 
these facts is that the law of transformation of force, 
the chief reliance of Materialism, breaks down at this 
point. Mind activity cannot be shown to be the 
equivalent in material energy of brain activity. The 
two forms of energy are so distinct that science has 
not succeeded in showing any point of identity be- 
tween them. As Professor Fiske says, each is a 
"closed circuit." Brain activity generates heat; this 
heat can be traced in certain forms it assumes in the 
process, and thus the physical equivalent of brain 
force may in a measure be detected. Here is one of 
the closed circuits. Mind activity is also self-con- 
sistent, passes from stage to stage, but never can it- 
be found transforming itself into heat or any other 
known form of physical energy. The mind also is a 
closed circuit. Brain and thought are mysteriously 
connected, but in no sense are they equivalents of 
each other. 4 

55. We have been regarding Materialism in its 
defective views as to matter. It is even less trust- 
worthy in its estimate of mind. When we consider 
the facts of consciousness we at once discover the 
failure of Materialism. In many ways mind rises 
above matter, transcends it, and refuses to conform to 
its laws. Take, for example, the fact of self-con- 
sciousness. The thinker can make of himself an ob- 
ject of thought. What enables him to turn his gaze 
in upon himself thus save an inherent power placing 



44 MATERIALISM 

him on a higher plane than that of matter? Then, 
too, there is the will which Materialism cannot ex- 
plain. The will is a canse; matter is always an 
effect. The power of choice and of attention enables 
me to conquer the world of influences about me. I 
go up the street rather than down; I take my 
Shakespeare to read rather than another book from 
my library shelves as the result of an inner impulse. 
Materialism asserts that man is an automaton. But 
our sense of freedom assures us that we are not. 
This power of the human will which enables it to 
crush through actual external forces and concentrate 
itself upon a given object is a marvelous fact. No 
wonder some of the best thinkers find in it evidence 
of the ultimate fact of a personal spirit behind 
nature. 5 

56. Materialism is helpless in the presence of 
design in man and nature. It assumes that the 
world we know with its beauty and order is the re- 
sult of a "happy accident" merely. All the wonder- 
ful progress which evolution teaches and which we 
see in nature thus arose. In ourselves we find a fact 
which furnishes a far better clew to guide us. We 
are conscious of purpose and of ability to execute 
purpose. If then purpose is stamped on nature, shall 
we go so far out of our way for an explanation when 
in one department of that nature, our own person- 
ality, it lies ready to hand ? If we view it as a whole 
nature may be likened to a puzzle picture given to 
us with personality attached as the guide to its proper 



MATERIALISM OPPOSES MORALITY 45 

interpretation; or to an arithmetic of which the 
cosmos, with its problems, is tae main body of the 
book, while personality is the answer to these printed 
in the back. 

57. Personality transcends nature also in other 
ways. The power of memory and the sense of re- 
sponsibility assure us that as spirits we survive all 
changes in our material bodies, unless it be death 
itself. But in particular does our moral and religious 
nature impress this. There can be no abiding 
ground for moral worth according to Materialism. 
Yet our nature assures us that here are values above 
all others. Eeligion is universal to man. It is in- 
credible that a racial instinct and conviction rooted 
in the very foundations of our being can be alto- 
gether an illusion. Moreover, Materialism fails 
utterly to account for the rise of religion in man, for 
its persistence and its increasing power in the world. 

The moral and religious aspects of Materialism 
alone condemn it. Many materialists of the past 
have frankly admitted that there are no fixed moral 
standards. Room is not left for these in Material- 
ism. Sometimes they have urged men to worship 
something, as man, or nature, or certain ideals, but 
these suggestions serve but to show how even ma- 
terialists must respect the religious impulse in man. 8 

58. The relations which exist between mind and 
matter are also suggestive and furnish important 
evidence. Unable to rid themselves of the presence 
of mind and its importance in nature some material- 



46 MATEEIALISM 

ists now assume an original mind-stuff in nature, a 
double-faced unity. Atoms have a mental side as 
well as a material. The brain is simply a large 
aggregation of these mentally constituted, particles 
of matter. So we are told. But this is a surrender 
of Materialism. It confesses that mind is necessary 
to explain the world. The trouble with this view, 
however, is that there is no evidence of the existence 
of mind-stuff in detached atoms. We know mind in 
personality, not in impalpable star dust. 

59. The superiority of mind over matter is seen 
in the fact that mind uses matter. Matter is the 
servant of mind. Mind can and does direct and 
mould matter in ten thousand ways. Matter can do 
nothing with mind. 

The testimony of science is a tribute to the power 
of mind rather than to the sole reality of matter. 
Science is simply the expression of one side of human 
experience. We have observed nature, thought of 
nature, and the outside world has been poured into 
the mould of our personality. The result is science. 
Science is thus the vindication of personality and 
experience, and hence of the spiritual view of nature. 

Then, too, nature produces spiritual and religious 
effects in man. It suggests God to him. The his- 
tory of religion shows this. "His eternal power and 
Godhead" appear in nature. Hence we are led to the 
inference that mere matter is not the sole reality. 
This point has been well developed by a recent writer, 
who says: "Matter has, as a fact, from the very 



SCIENCE VINDICATES SPIRIT 47 

dawn of human history, ministered to the religious 
development of spirit; and when we remember what 
religion is, and all that it has done for man, it is 
not too much to say that among all the ministries 
of matter this, its service to religion, is beyond com- 
parison the chief. 5 

Materialism as a general theory of the world has 
been much discredited by recent science and philoso- 
phy. It survives in many quarters, however — not 
indeed as a formal view, but rather as a practical 
working principle. The facts of the spiritual world 
are simply ignored. The Materialism of practical 
life needs to be vigorously resisted. Theoretical Ma- 
terialism cannot stand before mature reflection and 
the growing moral sense of the race, and the best 
antidote to practical Materialism is the energy of 
spiritual and holy living. 



*-»' 



CHAPTER IV. 

AGNOSTICISM. 

Let us consider next Agnosticism, which is unlike 
the preceding theories in this, that instead of at- 
tempting to account for the world, it denies the 
possibility of ever learning the great mystery. There 
are various types of agnosticism which it is unneces- 
sary for us to consider. Some of them deny the 
reality and validity of all knowledge. Others attempt 
to adhere to certain kinds of knowledge, while deny- 
ing other kinds. The agnosticism most in vogue to- 
day is that which has arisen in connection with the 
study of physical nature, and which insists upon 
confining our knowledge to appearances. 

60. We are here and the world is there over 
against us, says the agnostic. Impressions come 
streaming in upon us from the outside world through 
our sense-organs. But the knowledge thus obtained 
is of phenomena, or appearances only, and not of the 
reality behind them. There is, of course, a cause 
behind all things which we see. According to Her- 
bert Spencer, this hidden cause is a force which is 
described as the unknowable. Professor Huxley 
adopted the word agnosticism to describe this atti- 
tude of mind. This ultimate force may be God, or 

48 



ULTIMATE BEAUTIES UNKNOWABLE 49 

matter, or the universal substance of pantheism. 
We cannot know which. We only know its mani- 
festations. Two chief reasons are assigned for this. 
One is that the force itself is an absolute, something 
so unlike and so unrelated to our finite minds that 
communication between the two is impossible. The 
other reason is that our minds change everything that 
enters them. They are like moulds into which clay 
is pressed and its shape changed in the process. As 
a result of these two facts knowledge of reality never 
reaches us. Truth may be started in our direction, 
we may imagine, from the remotest frontiers of be- 
ing, and it travels towards us, but on the way it puts 
on a disguise, and when it reaches us it wears over 
its face a mask. We never see beneath the mask. 
Such truth is like a traveler across a great alkali 
desert of the West, who is so covered with dust at the 
end of the journey as to be beyond recognition. 
Moreover, like cuttle-fishes our minds emit from 
themselves a coloring fluid which still further con- 
ceals the true nature of things. Nature all about, 
rocks, trees and hills, men and women, are the 
masked semblances which manifest an unknowable 
something behind them. 

61. Wie must not confound the position of the 
agnostic with that of men who claim that while we 
really know things, our knowledge of all things is 
limited. All of us can agree with the agnostic in 
denying perfect and complete knowledge of any- 
thing. Our knowledge of all things must grow from 



50 AGNOSTICISM 

more to more. This, however, is not the contention 
of the agnostic. He makes the bold assertion regard- 
ing our knowing faculties that they are entirely with- 
out capacity in certain spheres. He asserts that 
"things in themselves," realities beyond the percep- 
tion of our senses, are not and cannot be known by 
us. The agnostic does not deny that there are such 
realities; he only maintains that they are unknow- 
able to man. This unknowableness is due to the 
nature of these things in themselves and to the con- 
stitution of the human mind. 

62. Note now the objections to this view. For 
one thing, there is no valid ground for assuming 
a mal-adjustment between our knowing powers and 
the world about us. Why should truth be supposed 
to disguise herself when she starts towards man? 
What reason have we for believing such a mockery? 
None. The discoveries of science are convincing evi- 
dence that the world without answers to the world 
within man. Again, why should we suppose that 
appearances do not reveal reality and not merely 
conceal ? Indeed, when the agnostic declares that the 
world manifests an unknowable force he is self- 
contradictory. If the world so manifests, it so far 
reveals the hidden force. He is also inconsistent 
when he declares that there is an unknowable. If 
he knows that an unknowable exists, he knows at 
least so much about the unknowable, which at once 
ceases to be unknowable. 

63. What is the ultimate force behind phenora- 



EVIDENCE FROM WILL 51 

ena? We do not and cannot know, replies the ag- 
nostic, but we know whence we derive our own ideas 
of force, and we know the nature of that force. Mr. 
Spencer says that our idea of force is derived from 
the human will. The power we ourselves exert on 
objects about us through our own volition is the final 
unit of power. So that if we think even a little 
about the ultimate power which causes all that we 
see, we are led to think of will. Another point: 
Conservation of energy is at work in nature. Every 
force now at work is some other force transformed. 
Transformation or conservation of force points back 
to one and only one original force, by what is known 
as the law of parsimony. This law warns us not to 
allege more causes than we need to account for things. 
One ultimate force is enough if the law of the trans- 
formation of energy is true. But observe carefully 
that this law expresses only the transformation, not 
the origination of force. Energy as nature exhibits 
it has no power of initiative. It is not an initial 
force. Whence then do we derive our idea of initia- 
tive? What force do we know that starts things go- 
ing? The answer is, the human will. So, then, if 
we go back to the beginning of the world and ask 
what force began it we have no possible reply except 
that it was will. Now, why should the agnostic not 
reverse his proceeding? When he looks in physical 
nature at the results of a bolt of lightning and dis- 
covers a derived and secondary physical force, and 
then at human nature and discovers will an original 



52 AGNOSTICISM 

and underived personal force, why does he proceed to 
postulate the lower instead of the higher as the first 
cause of creation? Why not find a person there in- 
stead of a blind force ? Why assert force only if he 
makes any assertion at all? The world has paused 
long for the agnostic to answer this question satis- 
factorily. The one unescapable thing in the universe 
is personality. We may travel by any one of a thou- 
sand roads. They all converge in an ultimate Per- 
son. We shall recur to this point in our chapter on 
Theism, and show how it bears upon the ultimate de- 
cision of the question of the origin of the world. 

64. The agnostic claims neither to assert nor deny 
the existence of God. Virtually he denies in claim- 
ing that we cannot know God. For, as has been well 
argued, if there be a God some evidence of him must 
necessarily exist. God is too all-pervading, things 
are too dependent upon him, for us to discover no 
traces of him. It would have been impossible for a 
God to cover up his tracks so completely that beings 
possessed of reasoning powers would find none. The 
stamp of the maker is on all products. The higher 
the quality of work, the more convincing and dis- 
tinctive are the marks of the workmanship. God 
could not conceal himself entirely behind his works. 

65. Underlying the agnostic theory is the prob- 
lem of knowledge which the purpose and limits of 
this work do not admit of our taking up for full 
discussion. It is assumed here that we live in an 
honest universe, that our faculties correspond to the 



AGNOSTICISM INCONSISTENT 53 

world about us. If this is not true, then all rea- 
soning on all subjects is vain. The consistent ag- 
nostic does not and never did exist. He could not 
make any assertion whatever if he were consistent. 
For, if our faculties are unreliable, his dogma of uni- 
versal doubt is itself much to be doubted. The 
Greeks settled his problem for him by reducing the 
process to absurdity long ago. 

We may now sum up briefly, with perhaps some 
slight repetition, the unwarranted assumptions of 
agnosticism which show how very untenable it is as 
a theory of knowledge. 

66. First of all, it assumes without warrant that 
appearances of things and the reality behind appear- 
ances are wholly different. It does not merely as- 
sert that there is something more in a rainbow, for 
example, than its beautiful colors and form which 
appear to the eye, but that that something more is 
so radically different from what appears to our gaze 
that we may not progressively come to understand 
it so long as our powers remain as they are. Now we 
all agree that color and form are what they are in 
large part because the eye is what it is. A diseased 
eye might not discern the colors clearly and the rain- 
bow's graceful curve might be distorted into some 
other shape to such an eye. But there is no ground 
for asserting that there is no connection between 
the mysterious something behind the rainbow and the 
very beautiful hues which manifest that something. 
What we see does indeed manifest something we do 



54 AGNOSTICISM 

not see, but there is no good reason for supposing 
we can never trace the one back to the other, nor 
for denying that so far as we do see our vision is 
reliable and trustworthy. 

67. A further assumption of agnosticism is not 
only that appearances and realities behind them are 
wholly unlike each other, but also that the agnostic 
himself knows that those realities are beyond man's 
knowing powers. This is itself a marvelous kind of 
knowledge. So long as the agnostic admits that 
there is something behind appearances he has no right 
to assert it is unknowable. To know that a thing 
exists is very important knowledge about the thing. 
To know further that that existing thing is above or 
beyond man's powers of knowing is another exceed- 
ingly important item of knowledge. The agnostic 
knows still further that the thing in itself can mani- 
fest itself by means of appearances, which is a third 
kind of knowledge about it. The position of the 
agnostic, then, is self-contradictory. As a matter of 
fact, a "thing in itself about which nothing can be 
known is a "nothing in itself." To employ the Ger- 
man phrase, Das Ding an sich ist ein Unding! 

68. Again the agnostic makes an unwarranted 
assumption regarding man's faculties of knowledge. 
He claims that none of man's powers enable him to 
obtain real knowledge beyond appearances. There 
are many forms of intellectual activity in man. 
These are not only the "objects of sense, but also 
the data of consciousness, beliefs, intuitions and in- 



LAWS OF THOUGHT 55 

ferences." Now the agnostic asserts that none of 
these can be relied upon to give real knowledge. 
Intuitions and self-evident propositions are not to 
be trusted when they go beyond objects of sense. 

Here again the agnostic assumes an immense 
amount of knowledge about the human mind. He 
knows that mind so thoroughly in all its inner 
and essential nature, he knows this "thing in itself" 
which we call mind so completely that he knows 
it to be incapable of arriving at any kind of knowl- 
edge save one — the knowledge of appearances. Ay 
has been well said, the agnostic thus assumes a sort 
of omniscience regarding the limitations of his own 
powers. To assert what the agnostic asserts about 
"things in themselves" and the human mind implies 
almost infinite knowledge. 

69. The fact is there are laws of tnought as well 
as laws of things. The mind is endowed with certain 
powers which are trustworthy or else there is no 
knowledge of any kind. When my mind relates the 
rainbow in the heavens to other things, to past and 
future showers, to a painter's conception, or to a bib- 
lical promise, my mind thereby shows that in it 
are inherent laws of thought which do not belong 
to the world of appearances at all. These laws of 
thought do not mislead me. I am under their 
sway. I am not at the mercy of "appearances" 
merely. The world within man, in other words, is 
as real a world as that without. If that thought- 
world within me, therefore, tells me of things above 



56 AGNOSTICISM 

sense, above clouds and rainbows, if it tells me of 
God and spirit, I am under as great obligation to 
heed its voice as the voice of the external world. 
The wisest of the Greek philosophers, indeed, said 
that the real world is this inner thought-world and 
that the realm of mere opinion is the world of ap- 
pearances. The fact is, rather, that we find truth in 
both departments of knowledge — not all truth but 
some truth. 

70. Dr. Robert Flint has clearly shown that no 
man can consistently be a partial agnostic. To be 
consistent he must doubt all knowledge and not 
merely that as to "things in themselves." Moreover, 
in doubting the reality of knowledge the agnostic 
contradicts himself. In denying man's capacity to 
know, the agnostic is compelled to assert that ca- 
pacity. One Greek philosopher denied motion, an- 
other asserted motion, a third declared that no opin- 
ion was possible as to motion, because the evidence 
was equally balanced. Thus the mind cannot attain 
to truth, he concluded. Yet in so concluding he 
relied upon his own mental powers. One truth is 
attainable, and that is that we ought to doubt every- 
thing. But if the mind enables us to reach this 
conclusion and leave it on a solid basis, then the 
mind is reliable after all and agnosticism is a false 
theory. 1 It turns out then that agnosticism is very 
much of a dogma, an assertion without authority, 
an assumption without warrant. 

71. That man can have no knowledge of God 
takes for granted that there is no kinship between 



AGNOSTICISM AND BELIGION 57 

man and God. To deny this is not conducive either 
to the religious or the moral life. Agnostics do not 
usually reject the moral ideal, but there is no valid 
reason why they should not if their agnosticism is 
true. Agnosticism has no secure basis for moral 
obligation. It tends to destroy all trust and all 
struggle for the highest things. "Bring men to 
think there is no objective truth outside of the 
region of morals, and, as a rule, what they will con- 
clude is not that there is such truth there, but that 
there is such truth nowhere. ... A soul from 
which all moral faith has gone is, indeed, a soul 
that has lost all true good, and is itself a lost soul." 
So remarks Dr. Flint in concluding a discussion of 
the moral aspects of agnosticism. He then quotes 
the following from Shelley as a poetic expression 
of the souFs desolation when the moral ideal has 
perished : 

"As music and splendor 

Survive not the lamp and the lute, 
The heart's echoes render 

No song when the spirit is muter- 
No song but sad dirges 

Like the wind in a ruined cell, 
Or the mournful surges 

That ring the dead seaman 's knell. ' n 

Its lack of moral force is a sufficient condemnation 
of agnosticism, to say nothing of its intellectual in- 
consistencies. On any and all grounds it is not a 
theory of the world worthy of earnest and aspiring 
men. One can appreciate its temporary value for 
a certain class of minds passing through a mental 
transition, but one cannot justify it as a working 
theory of life in any sphere or calling. 



CHAPTER V. 



EVOLUTION. 



72. Next we must consider Evolution, the very 
widely accepted theory as to the manner in which 
the physical universe attained its present form. 
Evolution is a word of many meanings, and it is not 
easy to employ it in any extended discussion in a 
way to avoid confusion. Here is a concise definition 
given by Herbert Spencer: Evolution is always 
fundamentally "an integration of matter and dissi- 
pation of motion." 1 This is assuredly broad enough 
to cover most instances of evolution. A longer state- 
ment from the same writer is : "Evolution is an in- 
tegration of matter and concomitant dissipation of 
motion, during which the matter passes from an 
indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite co- 
herent heterogeneity, and during which the retained 
motion undergoes a parallel transformation." 2 The 
meaning is that the process in nature is from the 
simple to the complex. It means also that this pro- 
gressive change from the simple to the complex and 
from the complex to the more complex is not con- 
fined to the his lory of the single animal or plant, 
but that it overleaps the bounds of species. The 
higher animals, including man with his mental and 

58 



EVOLUTION DEFINED 59 

moral powers, were evolved out of the lower, and 
the lowest animals were evolved out of the plants, 
the plants in turn, with their life principle, having 
been evolved out of the non-living matter which pre- 
ceded them. This, however, is only the middle stage 
of the process. Prior to the rise of the living out 
of the non-living there was a vast stretch of time 
preparing the materials for the coming of life. The 
sixty or seventy elementary substances now known 
were evolved out of something yet more simple until, 
at length, millions upon millions of years ago, no 
one knows exactly when, we come upon the starting 
point in a "primitive nebulosity," a fiery mist which 
was somehow set in motion and resulted in the 
world as we know it, including our planet and solar 
system and the innumerable other systems of the 
starry universe. The development of man also has 
gone on in many directions at the end of the process. 
The family, civil law and government, from the low- 
est tribes to the most advanced nations; ethics, from 
the first glimmer of the light of conscience to the 
highest moral ideal of the Christian; religion, from 
the worship of the ghost of some ancestor to the 
loftiest monotheistic faith. 3 

73. There are two or three notable points which 
need a word of emphasis in the above truly wonder- 
ful generalization of the human mind. One is its 
mclusiveness. It is universal in its sweep. No 
atom of matter, nor even the most infinitesimal liv- 
ing thing, exists which is not included in the law. 



60 EVOLUTION 

There is no minute fragment of time, past, present or 
future, in which it does not or will not operate. 
The second point is its exclusiveness. It is a prin- 
ciple which excludes every other as explanatory of 
the course of nature. No other is needed, no other 
is possible. In the third place the theory emphasizes 
continuity. Throughout the process at every stage 
a uniform principle controls. There are of course 
secondary means or causes, as natural selection, 
heredity, adaptation to environment, physiological 
selection, struggle for life, or for the life of others, 
etc. But no interference from without is to be 
countenanced for a moment. In the phrase of Pro- 
fessor Le Conte, the entire process is carried on 
through the operation of "resident forces," forces 
dwelling in the world itself, and not introduced 
therein during the progress of evolution. The uni- 
verse, then, as it exists to-day is simply the unfold- 
ing of what was enfolded in the primitive element or 
elements. 

74. It is to be noted next that evolution is not held 
by its advocates to be a first cause of things. The 
original force required for the progressive unfolding 
is assumed. It is already at work when the first 
steps are taken. Some evolutionists teach that disso- 
lution is also a necessary part of the course of 
nature, and that in due time all will be resolved 
into the original nebulous state and a new process 
covering a new cycle will begin. 

75. Again it is to be noted that evolution as 



SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHIC EVOLUTION 61 

descriptive of the method of the working of the 
forces of nature is the more accurate meaning of 
the term. Evolution is not a cause of things, 
though sometimes loosely employed in this sense. 
There is also a difference between the purely scien- 
tific and the philosophical conception of evolution. 
As a purely scientific theory it refers only to 
the facts of nature and their proper observation 
classification and organization. It becomes philo- 
sophical when it is employed as the basis of theories 
to explain the ultimate facts and forces of nature. 
When a man turns his doctrine of evolution into 
materialism, monism or theism it thereby ceases to 
be science and becomes philosophy. Evolution as a 
science refuses to express an opinion on ultimate 
forces. This it leaves to the philosophers and the- 
ologians, who formulate their general views accord- 
ing to their varying points of view. It needs always 
to be kept in mind from the purely scientific stand- 
point that assertions as to ultimate forces are out 
of order. Science herself is jealous on this point 
and seeks ever to restrain her speculative devotees 
from rash theories. This does not mean that science 
exhausts the possibilities of knowledge, but only that 
science accomplishes her best results as she confines 
herself to her own sphere. 

Evolution is the very widely accepted working hy- 
pothesis of modern science. Many assert that it is 
established beyond all controversy. Can this claim 
be made out? There is not space to enter into the 



62 EVOLUTION 

details of the answer to this question. But some 
of the leading points may be stated. One of the 
chief difficulties of the theory lies in its account of 
origins, another in its principle of continuity, and 
another in its principle of comprehension or in- 
clusiveness. 

76. Note first its account of the origin of things. 
The theory is that when evolution began nothing had 
yet been evolved. The pre-existing matter was alike 
in all its parts; that is, it was "homogeneous." But 
somehow this homogeneous matter had to be set in 
motion before anything but the homogeneous could 
arise. How did matter get this start? Mr. Spencer 
answers by saying it was in a state of unstable 
equilibrium, and that this instability was what start- 
ed the motion. But, as has been well remarked, this 
idea of an unstable homogeneous matter is self-con- 
tradictory. If the matter was alike in every part, or 
truly homogeneous, it would have remained so. If 
it had a tendency to change in the same direction 
equally in every part it would remain homogeneous. 
Difference could not arise. If it had a tendency 
to change in one part more than in others motion 
might begin, but this would not be homogeneous 
matter. So evolution is greatly embarrassed in get- 
ting the world started. Besides, when the start 
was made, its direction had to be determined. The 
result of the process is an ordered and beautiful uni- 
verse : a cosmos, not a chaos. Then, too, all that has 
come out must have been in the beginning. You 



DEFECTIVE AS TO CONTINUITY 63 

can judge of beginnings adequately only by endings. 
Potentially the world as it is, was in the world as it 
was. If evolution is true, nothing could come out 
that was not in at the start. It looks as if evolution 
required to assume two original things in order to 
get any development at all. But if this be true 
everything was not evolved. At least these two 
originals were not. The ordered universe seems 
to indicate that one at least of these originals must 
have been intelligent. 

77. Again evolution has not established its prin- 
ciple of continuity. It is not necessary to dwell 
upon this familiar point. It is enough to indicate 
that the various "links" which were missing from 
the chain in the earlier stages of the discussion of 
evolution have never been fully^ supplied. Professor 
Wallace, one of the most eminent of modern scien- 
tists and an evolutionist, thinks there are at least 
three points in evolution where the continuity is 
broken. We cannot account for the rise of life out 
of the non-living; nor for the introduction of ani- 
mal sensation and consciousness; nor most of all 
can we explain the higher nature of man. An unseen 
spiritual universe must be assumed, Professor Wal- 
lace thinks, to account for the mental, moral and 
spiritual powers of man. 

78. Evolution also comes short in its principle of 
inclusiveness. As we have seen, the theory as held 
by many evolutionists embraces everything in man's 
nature and in human society as well as in the ma- 



64 EVOLUTION 

terial and organic world below man. All the changes 
which take place are under the operation of a single 
principle, viz, the "redistribution of matter and mo- 
tion." 4 It is easy to see how difficult it would be to 
prove this. There are parts of the world which, so 
far as we can see, are totally diverse from matter 
and motion. The mind of man is not material. His 
moral and religious nature and all his higher life 
constitute an absolute break with the physical order. 
Some evolutionists tried to ignore these facts until 
it was discovered that the facts were under the opera- 
tion of laws of their own. A man's mind acts and 
develops according to law, yet nothing but a figure 
of speech could warrant the assertion that the laws 
of such development are the same as those which 
control the progress of the bird, for example, from 
the egg-state to the adult state. Mechanical nature, 
organic nature, and mental nature are distinct and 
diverse platforms of being. Evolution in the usual 
sense cannot possibly include the higher platform. 
As Professor Jevons says : "We find ourselves, there- 
fore, in this dilemma: if the mechanical theory is 
true, and science can deal only with things moving 
in space, then psychology and sociology are not 
sciences, and their subject matter never can be made 
amenable to scientific treatment. On the other hand, 
if psychology is a science, then science deals with 
things which do not move in space." Of course 
psychology is a science, as are ethics and religion 
which exhibit laws and phenomena peculiar to them- 



NO PRINCIPLE OF UNITY 65 

selves. It follows, then, that the definition of evo- 
lution as "the redistribution of matter and motion" 
breaks down. There are spheres to which this def- 
inition does not apply. 

79. It would appear, then, from the last point, 
that evolution as a fresh attempt to unify the totality 
of things under a single principle comes short of 
the goal. The principle of continuity is broktn in 
the passage from the lower to the higher planes of 
being, and in the psychic, social, moral and spiritual 
realms it disappears altogether as a physical force. 
One of the great assumptions of the theory of evolu- 
tion is that a progressive series of things must neces- 
sarily be the product of one continuous inner prin- 
ciple. A series of knives in a museum, beginning 
with a knife of rude stone and including those of 
iron and steel through all stages down to the most 
improved modern type, was labeled "The evolution 
of the jackknife" Yet the members of this pro- 
gressive series did not spring out of each other. 
The human mind was the force which wrought out 
the unity and progress. Evolution then as a word de- 
scriptive of the orderly progression in the history 
of nature is a legitimate and proper use of ihe 
term. But the use of evolution as a means of ex- 
plaining how the progress came about is as yet un- 
warranted by the facts of science. 

Our intellectual craving for unity then finds satis- 
faction in a limited way only in the discovery of the 
orderly progress of all history. The passage from 



1W EVOLUTION 

the lower to the higher stages of heing is the domi- 
nant if not the exclusive law of its activity. It is 
not necessary to dwell upon regressive evolution. 
Evolution as a description of nature unifies it super- 
ficially but not by an inner law or principle. But 
even a superficial unity renders more urgent the 
problem of the deeper unity. The mind cannot rest 
in a mere description of nature. It asks an explana- 
tion of the deeper riddle. 

80. If, then, the inner principle of continuity, 
as held by so many evolutionists, fails to account 
for all the facts, the mind at once seeks another 
principle which is adequate to account for their 
complexity and manifoldness, and equal to the task 
of carrying on the development over the hard places 
to its culmination in man and human society and 
religion. Here it is proper to remark that while 
evolution in its earlier stages was accompanied usu- 
ally by a materialistic or agnostic philosophy, in its 
later stages it has tended more and more towards 
theism, or the view that mind is required to account 
for the world. Theism holds that God exists, that 
he is a personal being in some sense, and that he 
sustains direct relations to the world. 

We may take Professor Romanes as an instance 
illustrating the drift towards theism among evolu- 
tionists. In a work in the earlier part of his life 
entitled A Candid Examination of Theism the late 
Professor G. J. Romanes argued to show that none 
of the proofs for the existence of God were con- 



THEISTIC EVOLUTION 67 

elusive. Here is his own summary of his conclusion : 
"We first disposed of the conspicuously absurd sup- 
position that the origin of things or the mystery 
of existence admits of being explained by the theory 
of theism in any further degree than by the theory of 
atheism/' 5 In a later work, published after his 
death, entitled Thoughts on Religion, Romanes 
reached an opposite conclusion. Indeed he goes 
further than a bare belief in God's existence. He 
says in the closing chapter of the above work: "At 
one time it seemed to me impossible that any propo- 
sition, verbally intelligible as such, could be more 
violently absurd than that of the doctrine of the In- 
carnation. Now I see that this standpoint is wholly 
irrational, due only to the blindness of reason itself 
promoted by purely scientific habits of thought." 8 
In the same connection he says that the doctrine 
of the Trinity is no more irrational than that of 
the Incarnation. In the above statements Romanes 
was not confessing his faith, but merely regarding 
the matter from the point of view of reason. He 
later became a communicant in the Church of Eng- 
land. 

John Fiske also illustrates the growth towards a 
theistic view of evolution. Indeed he contends in 
his little work Through Nature to God that the prin- 
ciples of evolution suggest and even require belief 
in God's existence. Evolution teaches that every 
organism develops through the response of its inner 
life-principle to its environment. The growth of 



68 EVOLUTION 

the idea of God has taken place in the same way in 
the history of mankind. God is the object or environ- 
ment corresponding to man's belief. His actual 
existence is necessary to account for the origin and 
survival and development of the belief. Says Mr. 
Fiske : "Now if the relation thus established in the 
morning twilight of Man's existence between the 
human soul and a world invisible and immaterial 
is a relation of which only the subjective term is 
real and the objective term non-existent, then, I c-ay, 
it is something utterly without precedent in the whole 
history of creation. * * * To suppose that dur- 
ing countless ages, from the seaweed up to Man, the 
progress of life was achieved through adjustments to 
external realities, but that then the method was all 
at once changed and throughout a vast province of 
evolution the end was secured through adjustments 
to external non-realities, is to do sheer violence 
to logic and to common sense." 7 Mr. Fiske also says 
in his Cosmic Philosophy "that with reference to 
the fundamental truths of Christianity, * * * 
our cosmic philosophy is eminently conservative, own- 
ing no fellowship either with the radical infidelity of 
the eighteenth century or with the world-mending 
schemes of positivism." 8 

The above are two out of numerous instances which 
might be cited showing how the agnostic conclusion 
is not a result of thought but of a refusal to think. 
When thought begins the progress is direct, as a 
rule, towards theism. As Romanes says: "By no 



UNTENABLE AS HYPOTHESIS 69 

logical artifice can we escape from the conclusion that, 
60 far as we can see, this universal order must be 
regarded as due to some one integrating principle; 
and that this, so far as we can see, is most probably 
of the nature of mind." 9 

81. Theistic evolution branches into two forms. 
One contents itself with the principle of the divine 
immanence to account for all things and may stop 
6hort of Christianity. The other, which takes on a 
Christian form, holds also to the divine transcend- 
ence, and to miracle. God is not only in nature. 
He is also above it. In the Christian form it ceases 
to be evolution in the original and strict sense and 
is compatible with the doctrines of evangelical Chris- 
tianity. One of the chief points at issue between the 
two forms of theistic evolution will come out when 
we discuss miracles in a later chapter. 

82. As to the theory of evolution in general sev- 
eral attitudes have been adopted by as many classes 
of students. To the first class belong the dogma- 
tists, men who hold evolution as having been finally 
established. It is a scientific dogma and no longer 
merely a working hypothesis. This position is clearly 
unwarranted and injures science when men insist 
upon holding it in this form. 

83. Again it is held as a hypothesis possessing a 
high degree of probability, but not yet established. 
As a working theory it is very valuable, doubtless, 
but if one were disposed to cavil with it, it might 
be shown that as a hypothesis even materialistic evo- 



70 EVOLUTION 

lution is unscientific. The marks of a legitimate 
hypothesis in science are "(1) That it must not be 
inconsistent with facts already ascertained or the 
inferences to which they lead. (2) The hypothesis 
must be of such a character as to admit of verifica- 
tion or disproof, or at least of being rendered more 
or less probable by subsequent investigations. (3) 
The hypothesis must be applicable to the description 
or explanation of all the phenomena, and, if it as- 
sign a cause, must assign a cause fully adequate to 
have produced them." 10 

Now evolution in the anti-theistic forms clearly 
violates (1) and (3) of the above conditions, even 
as a hypothesis. It violates (1) in that it holds that 
the living comes from the non-living, contrary to 
the other scientific induction that life only can pro- 
duce life, omne vivum ex vivo. In a sense it vio- 
lates the second condition also, in that it assumes 
unlimited time for the transformation of the non- 
living into the living. It is thus incapable of verifi- 
cation in the time allotted to men. It violates (3) 
in that the hypothesis is not applicable to the de- 
scription of all the phenomena, such, for example, 
as the psychic, social and moral phenomena of human 
society. In view of these facts it would at least seem 
to be incumbent upon evolutionists to hold the 
theory with becoming modesty. It is of the nature 
of a surmise or bold speculation in its anti-theistic 
forms, and as yet has not attained to the dignity 
(if the above tests are true) of a scientific hypothesis. 



CHEISTIAN THEISTIC VIEW 71 

Another attitude towards evolution is that of ac- 
ceptance in a modified form, as held by Wallace and 
others. This introduces Theism as the adequate 
cause and as meeting all the requirements of a hy- 
pothesis for scientific investigation. 

84. The Christian theistic view is the most sat- 
isfactory of all the forms of this hypothesis. This 
recognizes the breaks at various points in the 
upward progress. It also recognizes the prog- 
ress itself from lower to higher at every 
stage. It discovers purpose along the way, 
and particularly in man the final outcome. It leaves 
room for the working of many causes under the 
guidance of God, so that however complex the result, 
at least a reasonable provision is made for resources 
adequate to produce it. This, it must be remem- 
bered, is but a hypothesis. Science has not traced 
the modes of the divine operation at the various 
stages. The Christian can await with composure the 
outcome of researches into physical nature. Mean- 
time the evidences for his own beliefs are abundant 
and convincing. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THEISM : EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

In beginning the consideration of the preceding 
theories, the remark was made that all attempts to 
explain the universe could be classified in a two- 
fold way. One set of theories fixed upon something 
in nature below the plane of personal beings, while 
the others chose what is found on or above that 
plane, to explain the world. These two departments 
of nature embrace all the possible evidence. We 
have seen that no one of the theories examined 
is satisfactory as a final resting place for the mind 
in its quest of unity, and its effort to give an adequate 
account of things. 

85. It falls now to consider the total evidence 
as it is presented to us from a different point of 
view. We are not to assume forthwith that G-od 
exists and that he is a Person. But we may make 
use of the evidence afforded by personality in man 
in addition to the evidence below that plane in im- 
personal nature. We may consider the evidence thus 
in either of two ways. (1) We may pursue the 
current scientific method and adopt the hypothesis 
of an existent personal God and seek to verify the 
hypothesis by attention to the facts about us and 

72 



PROVING OF GOD 'S EXISTENCE 73 

within us. The evidence for God's existence may in 
this way be as convincing as that for the law of 
gravitation or the uniformity of nature. The facts 
are all accounted for. The hypothesis covers the 
entire field of phenomena. Science has no more 
right to pin its faith to an invisible, intangible thing 
like the law or force of gravitation than theology 
to pin its faith to God. I mean so far as the method 
of proof is concerned. The only question is as to 
the fidelity to facts and correctness of inference in 
the reasoning. Or (2) we may study the facts with- 
out a hypothesis of any kind and ask for an ex- 
planation which will satisfactorily account for them 
all. After all there is little difference between these 
methods. They are substantially the same. It is 
likely that both will enter into the argument. But 
first of all some other matters are to be touched upon. 
86. For one thing we may raise the prior question 
whether in the nature of the case it is possible to 
"prove" God's existence at all. Some theologians, 
even, deny that it is possible. All the arguments 
hitherto employed for the purpose they pronounce 
worthless. Following the theory of knowledge ad- 
vocated first by Hume and especially by Kant, they 
claim that the pure reason cannot prove a God. They 
fall back, however, upon the "practical reason." The 
moral nature of man and his practical needs as a 
religious being, it is held, necessitate belief in a God. 
Hence God's existence is assumed. We believe in 
him not because we can prove his existence, but 



74 THEISM 

because we need him. As this view is becoming quite 
current we must dwell upon it for a moment. 

87. All opponents of the above view will agree 
that the argument for God's existence based on this 
practical need of man is very valuable. What they 
object to is the claim that this is the only ground 
for believing in God's existence. Why, they ask, 
should it be supposed that the craving of reason is 
unprovided for in the structure of the world while 
that of the moral nature is satisfied? The craving 
for knowledge is a very "practical need" itself. How 
whimsical a world it would be if one part of man's 
higher nature can find rest in it and another part 
be put to permanent confusion? is the universe so 
constructed that the cry of the conscience for bread 
is answered with a loaf and the cry of the intellect 
with a stone? The advocates of the "practical rea- 
son" repudiate Anselm's argument for God's exist- 
ence from the idea of a necessarily existent being 
in the mind of man. But they at once commit the 
alleged fallacy of Anselm by asserting his existence 
on the strength of the felt need of him in the con- 
science. Why should a sense of moral need be the 
only part of the content of man's nature which 
we are warranted in paying attention to? Man's 
nature is a unit. There is no evidence that the uni- 
verse is so constructed that man's reason must 
forever remain an "infant crying in the night," 
while his moral nature finds eternal peace and rest. 

Again the advocates of the "practical reason" deny 



THE PRACTICAL REASON 75 

that design in nature can possibly prove an infinite 
God. At best it but proves a finite being. A 
fly may prove a designer, but at best he is only a 
flymaker, not an infinite being. But, we must reply, 
it has not yet been shown that the practical need 
itself requires an infinite being. Some distinctly 
say not. Prof. James thinks that some being great 
enough for us to trust for the next step is all that 
the "practical need" requires at any one time, some 
being great enough to help us and protect us from 
the largest flies, so to speak, in a finite world. 1 Then, 
too, the positivist philosopher, who denies the pos- 
sibility of all knowledge of the world beyond sense- 
perception, says that the "practical" moral and re- 
ligious needs of man will certainly perish in due 
time. They are but the remnants of by-gone super- 
stitions. Men are rapidly outgrowing them. It is 
difficult to see what secure foundation is left for 
belief in God if all evidence for his existence which 
appeals to the reason is swept away. Reference .is 
not here made to the Bible, but only to the issue as 
to God's existence independently of a direct revela- 
tion. 

88. Various compromises have been proposed as 
modifications of the view that God's existence can be 
proved. Some writers, as for example Professor 
Bruce in his excellent work on Apologetics, thinks 
that we ought to confine ourselves to the evidence 
as showing not that God is but what he is. Not 
God's existence, but his character, should engage 



76 THEISM. 

our attention. But it is clear that everything which 
tends to show what God is tends also to show that 
he is. The two aspects of the matter are inseparable. 
Professor James advocates the right of the soul to 
assume God's existence without proof in an essay 
entitled The Will to Believe. 2 Launch out in the 
dark, if you will, and act upon the belief that God 
exists, and experience will vindicate the wisdom of 
your act. Life will verify your faith in many ex- 
periences. As practical advice to the troubled soul 
these are admirable words. But it does not touch 
the question at issue, which is, how far we are 
warranted in asserting the possibility of proving to 
the intellect that God exists. 

89. Mathematical demonstration of God's exist- 
ence is impossible. The proof is not of a mathe- 
matical kind. This much can be conceded at once. 
Again, proof of the ordinary kind, known as moral 
or historical demonstration, is not equally convincing 
to all minds. Overwhelming proof, of a kind which 
is valid in every particular, will not convince the 
wilfully unbelieving. There is no mind without 
bias. Evidence in the direction of our preferences 
convinces easily, often too easily. And yet evidence 
does often properly convince the most skeptical. To 
prove God's existence in the sense of convincing 
of that existence is possible. 

This also may be affirmed, that evidence accepted 
as convincing sometimes turns out to be illusory or 
false. Nevertheless, when all is said, it remains true 



NOT MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION 77 

that the requisite degree of evidence does in many 
instances properly convince. This is true of many 
subjects and many degrees of evidence. The sum of 
the matter then is this : evidence for God's existence 
is not coercive to the intellect. Like all other moral 
proof, its fate is largely dependent upon the mental 
and especially the moral attitude of the mind to 
which it is addressed. Intellectual is as perverse 
as any other prejudice. Nevertheless, this alone is 
no warrant for rejecting the evidence as inadequate 
or invalid. The only final answer to the question 
whether or not God's existence can be proved is the 
evidence itself. 

The barest sketch of the evidence for God's exist- 
ence is all that is possible in a brief chapter. The 
totality of existing things, in various modes and de- 
grees, is the proof that there is a God. There is no 
object of creation, from Tennyson's "flower in the 
crannied wall" to the mightiest of the heavenly 
bodies; from the dimmest light which shines in the 
instinct of the animal to the highest reaches of the 
human intellect, which may not be used as a start- 
ing point from which we may rise to God. 

90. Is the idea of God native to the human 
mind? There is no warrant for the assertion that 
it is in the sense that as a finished thing it is tucked 
away in some recess of the soul when the soul enters 
the world, to be taken out upon due occasion for 
use. There are no such ideas. There is no way of 
answering the further question whether the idea of 



78 THEISM 

God would arise in the mind if it were not trans- 
mitted from parent to child. For practically all 
peoples have some notion of a God or gods, and it is 
impossible to escape it in the growth from childhood 
to manhood. To very many people this universal 
prevalence of the belief in God or gods is strong 
evidence of the actuality of his existence. 

Whether the complete idea of God is native to the 
mind or not, this much can be truthfully asserted: 
the mind is constituted for God. When it begins 
to reflect upon nature and life as these appear about 
us, the thought of God arises spontaneously, al- 
though it may be by degrees and not suddenly. The 
conception of God is not an intuition like an axiom 
in mathematics, yet a number of intuitive ideas lie 
at the basis of much of the reasoning to prove God's 
existence. The conception of cause and effect is one 
of these. The proposition that every effect must 
have an adequate cause needs no proof. The con- 
ception of dependent or derived existence over 
against that of independent or underived existence 
is of a similar nature. The moral intuition also, 
the witness of conscience to the distinction between 
right and wrong is accepted not because demon- 
strated but as an authoritative deliverance of the 
soul. These and other first truths, truths which 
the minds of all men accept as self-evident and 
necessary, lie at the foundation of the argument 
for the existence of God. 

91. On the foundation furnished by these first 



ARGUMENT FROM WILL 79 

truths have been reared the various systems to prove 
the existence of God. A recent work describes no 
less than thirteen types of Theism. Each type em- 
phasizes a different factor in the universe as the 
best evidence of God's existence. Some dwell on 
the evidence in material nature. Others accentuate 
the various elements in man's nature, such as the 
feelings, the intellect, the will, the aesthetic, the 
social nature. Others still combine various elements 
into composite systems. 

Some have been discouraged by the fact that the 
authors of the various types of theistic proof often 
seem to discredit the other types, and they are thus 
tempted to doubt them all. It is most probable that 
all are valid when properly expounded and related 
to each other. All roads lead to God. We can only 
consider a few of these, and this will be done in 
as simple and untechnical a manner as possible. 

92. One of the most convincing evidences is the 
indications of will in the universe. Briefly stated, 
this is the argument : a certain power is required to 
account for the totality of things. This power, in 
order to 6erve thus as an adequate cause, must pos- 
sess certain qualities. We search material nature 
for such a power possessing such qualities and fail 
to find it. We then turn to man's nature and dis- 
cover in will the kind of power needed. 

What the mind demands in accounting for the 
world is a first cause. It may be denied that we 
necessarily seek a first cause. But as a matter of 



80 THEISM 

fact we do. An infinite series of causes is impossible. 
The mind refuses to rest in the conception. The 
mind stubbornly refuses to think of an infinite chain 
attached to nothing at either end. All philosophers 
and all scientific men who hold to evolution with 
scarcely an exception assume a beginning of things 
in the form of ultimate force, or matter, or motion, 
even when they deny personality in the first cause. 

There are many causes operating in the world. 
What we seek is the First Cause. Some events are 
both causes and effects. We must find a cause which 
is itself uncaused. The principle is not that every 
existence must have a cause, but that every effect 
must have an adequate cause. If we find an exist- 
ence which is all cause and no effect, then we may 
pause. 

Now science aids us greatly at this point. Science 
has nowhere yet found any object, event, or phenom- 
enon which is wholly and exclusively cause. Electricity 
is generated by heat; heat comes from coal; the coal 
from the ancient forests; these obtained their prop- 
erties from the sun's rays; the solar heat was fed 
in some mysterious way, possibly by meteors, and 
so on back to the beginning. Now heat and coal and 
forest and sunlight — all the terms in the above series 
— were partly cause and partly effect. So each must 
be accounted for by something prior. Nowhere in 
all the boundless realm of material nature is there 
anything yet discovered which is wholly cause. Ulti- 
mate atoms or force have not been discovered, but 



ARGUMENT FROM MIND 81 

assumed. Moreover they need a prior cause to set 
them in motion. 

What, then, is the uncaused Cause of all things? 
There are strong reasons for asserting that tnat 
Cause is of the nature of will. Here are the reasons. 
First, science, up to date, clearly indicates that 
nothing in the material world has power to originate 
things. All events in material nature are in part 
effects, as we have seen. Hence we must seek for 
first causes in the higher realm of mind. Second, we 
derive our idea of power from the exercise of our 
own wills. The lowest savages personify the forces 
of nature, and polytheism arises. They see will be- 
hind events. The philosophers of all schools, in 
increasing numbers, grant this principle, that will 
is our ultimate conception of force. Hence the many 
derived and secondary causes are most probably the 
result of the first Cause, which is Will. Thirdly, 
not only is will our ultimate conception, the unit of 
force, so to speak; it is also the only force known 
to us which has power to originate. A new personal 
force in the world often turns the channels of his- 
tory. Our conclusion is that Will is the First Cause 
of all things. 

93. Another evidence of God's existence is the 
presence of mind in the universe. The reasoning is 
as follows: The natural order without us corre- 
sponds, or answers, to the mental order within us. 
When we think about things we can only think in 
certain ways. Things are thought of by us as cause 



82 THEISM 

and effect, as antecedent and consequent, as before 
and after, as dependent and independent. We also 
think of things as bearing certain mathematical 
relations to each other. There is, in other words, an 
order, an inner system of thought. When we look 
about us we find that the world corresponds to our 
thoughts about it. Its objects exist as cause and 
effect, and in other ways indicated. This order 
without is the counterpart to the order within. Sci- 
ence again is our support for the statement. Science 
finds, for example, that certain chemical elements 
combine in given proportions and produce a cer- 
tain result. This can be stated as a formula and 
grasped by the mind. The astronomer can predict 
an eclipse because he knows the mathematical rela- 
tions involved in the motions of the sun and planets. 
In short, we find in the world without agreement 
with the world within us. 

Now we may conclude either of two things: we 
may conclude that we simply read our own thoughts 
into the world about us, or we may conclude that the 
world without actually exists as we think of it. 
If we reach the first conclusion, we destroy science. 
For all science is built on the belief that the order 
of the world is a real order and not merely our 
thought about it. The unity of nature, its prog- 
ress, its system and order are all dependent on this 
fact. If we reach the second conclusion, which is 
that the world is constituted really as we think 
about it, then there must be another Thinker greater 



ABGUMENT FBOM DESIGN 83 

than we or the world, who thought all things before 
us, and who bound our minds and nature together 
thus in harmony. 

94. Another important proof is from the evi- 
dences of design in nature. This is an extension of 
the argument from the presence of mind. This 
argument is very simple in its essential nature. 
It discovers what appears to be contrivance or adapta- 
tion of means to ends, and infers a mind which did 
the contriving. It does not find design in nature, 
but infers design behind nature from what it finds 
in nature. The biblical writer felt the force of 
this argument, "He that planted the eye shall he 
not see; and he that planted the ear shall he not 
hear" (Psalm xciv. 9). Nature abounds in such con- 
trivances. All the organs of the body bear marks 
of design. The adaptations of physical nature ap- 
pear in many forms. The earth, for example, is 
made habitable by the fact that it is slightly tilted 
on its axis so that we have alternations of seasons. 
The theory of evolution at first tended to weaken 
this argument, from design. More recently it has 
seemed to strengthen it. "The eye," said evolution, 
"was not created ; it grew as a result of the struggle 
for life. Back in the dim past of low animal life 
the end of a nerve became sensitive to the light in 
the struggle for existence. Equipped with this sensi- 
tive nerve-end the animal somehow gained an ad- 
vantage over his fellows and survived. He trans- 
mitted this nerve to his descendants. It continued 



84 THEISM 

to become more sensitive and specialized, and at 
length — behold, an eye!" We will say nothing of 
the stretch of imagination required to realize this 
process, but proceed to remark that in any case 
the eye must in some way have been mixed in the 
original elements if it came out of them in the end. 
And this applies to the myriads of instances of de- 
sign in nature. 

95. Evolutionists of theistic and Christian types 
now quite generally hold that the argument from 
design is strengthened rather than weakened by the 
modern view of the world. The progress and order 
and beauty of the world, taken as a whole, are con- 
clusive evidence of design. 

There are several ways of regarding design in 
nature. One way is in the structure of the par- 
ticular organ or adaptation to its immediate end. 
The valvular system, for example, found in the 
veins and heart of the human body suggested the 
idea of the circulation of the blood to Harvey. 
The adaptation of a bird's wing to its purpose of 
locomotion through the air is a marvel of nature 
as described by the Duke of Argyll in his Reign of 
Law. The digestive apparatus and its uses, the 
lungs and their correspondence with their environ- 
ment, are examples. This is the older way of re- 
garding design. 

Again, we may view design in nature as a whole. 
Here we regard the culmination of nature in man 
with his moral and religious aspirations, and recog- 



MORAL PROOF 85 

nize purpose in all that went before. The apparent 
waste at certain stages thus becomes intelligible. A 
pile of debris, of broken planks and shattered tim- 
bers, has in itself little evidence of design. But as 
scaffolding employed for the erection of a great 
building its uses and value were obvious enough. 
So with apparent waste in nature. It must be un- 
derstood in relation to the whole. 

Every stage of the process of development is evi- 
dence of a guiding and designing mind. The orig- 
inal atoms of the primitive nebulosity were an 
orderly system directed by intelligence; else no or- 
derly system could have resulted. In organic nature, 
in chemistry, in biology, in the solar system, every- 
where that we discover order and progress we infer 
design as the guiding principle. 

96. There is lastly the moral proof for the exist- 
ence of God. Conscience is an ultimate fact of 
human experience. We will not and need not raise 
here the question of its origin. Conscience recognizes 
the distinction between right and wrong. It bases 
this distinction on moral law. Out of it arises the 
sense of responsibility. This sense of responsibility 
has reference not to nature or man but to a rightful 
Lawgiver, above conscience. Conscience is supreme 
among our faculties. The intellect cannot theorize 
away its judgments the feelings and desires cannot 
control its deliverances; the will even, which can 
control feelings and intellect, cannot destroy or 
6ilence the voice of conscience. Its sense of responsi- 



86 THEISM 

bility implies a personal relation to a Lawgiver. 
Some hold that the sense of fear, shame and confu- 
sion, or the sense of peace and tranquillity which 
attend the action of conscience, and especially the 
persistence of the voice of conscience, are evidence 
of the soul's immediate contact with God. By many 
this is regarded as the strongest of all the theistic 
arguments. The argument from history also shows 
a moral principle at work in the world. It is an 
extension of the moral proof just given and need 
not be elaborated here. 

There is a proof for the religious man in religious 
experience which is probably of the greatest prac- 
tical value of all the proofs. As this is to be dis- 
cussed in another connection it is omitted here. 

97. Note now the ground covered. The principle 
of causation underlies each argument. The proof 
from the evidence of will in nature indicates an 
efficient cause; that from mind an intelligent cause; 
that from design a purposive cause; and that from 
conscience a moral cause. Observe again the issue 
between the Theist and those who deny Theism. 
The latter seek the lowest possible forms of exist- 
ence — matter, force or something else — and explain 
all the highest in terms of the lowest. The Theist 
reverses the process. He explains the lowest in 
nature in terms of the highest. One stands below 
the personal plane, the other on that plane. The 
anti-theist says, "You cannot know the highest save 
by resolving it back into the lowest." The Theist 



SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT 87 

Bays, "You cannot know the lowest save in its out- 
come in the highest. All that has been evolved was 
involved." The Theist can urge two other considera- 
tions against the anti-theist: "Your original and 
lowest force or matter is a speculative abstraction, 
atoms or what not; my present highest, from which 
I judge is a concrete definite reality, viz., personality. 
Personality comes from the realm of the known 
while your abstract matter or force belongs to the 
realm of the unknown. The basis of your view is 
a speculation; the basis of mine is a known fact 
of existence. It is more in accord with strict science 
to infer personality in the first cause from person- 
ality as we know it in man than to infer an abstract 
something lying entirely beyond present knowledge. 
The real dogmatist, then, is not the Theist, but the 
materialist or pantheist or agnostic, the clear reason 
for thi3 assertion being simply this: the Theist 
alone finds in the realm of the known the founda- 
tion on which he rears his structure. Moreover, in 
your lowest original you are shut up by present 
science to sixty-four or sixty-five elements, with 
nothing to unify them. You have difference but not 
unity, whereas in my highest, personality, I have 
the only known existent thing which embodies differ- 
ence in unity." Hence the Theist concludes that 
Personality is the ultimate fact of existence. 

98. But, says the agnostic, "this is anthropomor- 
phism. You are simply reading yourself back into 
nature. Your God is your magnified self." "Not 



88 THEISM 

so," replies the Theist; "this might be true if no 
evidence of mind, will or purpose could be found out- 
side of man. But these are found in physical nature. 
Man does not read these things into nature, but finds 
them there. Moreover," says the Theist, replying 
further to the objection of the anti-theists that he 
merely reads himself into nature, "each of your the- 
ories which deny personality and which thus re- 
pudiate anthropomorphism builds on a fragment of 
personality after all. Most of them build on will. 
Agnosticism, of the Spencerian type, says the un- 
knowable, behind the world is most like will. In- 
telligence, too, is admitted in a sense by the pan- 
theist. The one substance attains personality in man. 
If the inscrutable force is intelligent, it is so in a 
manner far above man's intelligence, says the pan- 
theist. Matthew Arnold finds even morality in the 
unknown Power not ourselves that makes for right- 
eousness. But all these theories ceaselessly clash 
among themselves, never coming to rest. They are 
in a state of unstable equilibrium." So replies the 
Theist. From these facts the theist asserts that 
the disclaimers of anthropomorphism, and deniers of 
personality in the first cause, are driven to a partial 
personality in every instance. The Theist himself 
combines the fragments into a whole. That is, he 
accepts the materials furnished him by his opponents 
and rears his stable structure of theistic belief. This 
assures him that he is not anthropomorphic. For 
these opponents who furnish him the materials of 



BEPLIES TO OBJECTIONS 89 

personality in bits are the last of men to acknowledge 
anthropomorphism. Their misfortune is that they 
do not agree among themselves. 

If, however, the anti-theist repudiates the above 
views as to will, morality, etc., and still insists that 
the Theist is anthropomorphic, the latter can still 
reply that his opponent is guilty of a graver error. 
His method, if not anthropomorphic, is, as we may 
6ay, cosmomorphic. He rests the base of his ladder 
of inference not on man but on nature and climbs 
to his conclusion. He infers from matter and 
force something essentially like matter and force in 
the first cause. The Theist, on the other hand, 
plants his logical ladder on man and personality, 
which is the highest known form of existence. It is 
far easier to put personality first and matter second 
than to put matter first and personality second. 

"But," replies the anti-theist, "can you assert that 
personality is higher than matter? May they not 
be on the same level? Or, as J. S. Mill and others 
have contended, may it not be true that matter, 
because it is prior to mind in the order of time, so 
far as observation shows, is superior to mind and the 
cause of it?" 3 The reply is: Not if there is any 
truth in evolution; for evolution, if it teaches any- 
thing, teaches progress from lower to higher forms, 
and at the end of the progressive movement and 
crowning it is man and mind and personality. The 
very idea of progress is that the last in the order 
of time is first in the order of importance. You must 



90 THEISM 

always measure beginning by endings. All that 
comes out in the end was implicit in the beginning, 
else you have an effect without a cause. Evolution 
therefore clamors for the theistic way of interpreting 
the world. 

99. The moment we conclude that God is a per- 
sonal being, the mind inevitably raises the further 
question: Is he interested in this world and its 
inhabitants? Can he communicate a knowledge of 
his will to men, as men communicate with each 
other? Has he done so? The mind refuses to rest 
in bare theism. Christianity answers these questions 
about the God of Theism. 



PART II. 



JESUS CHRIST THE EVIDENCE OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 



CHAPTEK VII. 

THE SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS. 

A large interrogation point was left standing at 
the conclusion of the last chapter. Nature was seen 
to bear many evidences of the existence of an intelli- 
gent personal cause. Nature itself is a revelation 
of God. The marks of his wisdom, majesty and 
power are inscribed in it in every part. But neither 
nature nor man fully answers the questions : What 
is God's character ? Does he care for men ? Can he 
communicate to us a knowledge of his will? 

100. The answer to the questions thus raised by 
nature is Jesus Christ himself. It is now proposed 
to set before the reader the portraiture of Jesus as it 
is found in the Gospels. The questions whether the 
Gospels are authentic and credible are not now to 
be discussed. This will be done in a later chapter. 
It will appear that the representation of the Christ 
of the Gospels as herein set forth involves in an 
important sense an answer to these questions as 
to the Gospel records. 

In later chapters the miracles of Jesus and his 
ethical teachings will be taken up and their value 
as Christian evidences considered. It is believed, 
however, that an exhibition of the entire claim of 

OS 



94 SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS. 

Christ will prepare the way for the consideration of 
the detailed aspects of his Person and work. To 
consider miracles and the supernatural in the ab- 
stract is one thing. To consider them in relation 
to the Person of Christ is quite another. The bare 
question of a virgin birth or a resurrection of the 
dead, considered from the point of view of physical 
science merely, is not an adequate or correct method 
of dealing with the issue which Christianity has 
raised in the world. It is probably not an exag- 
geration to say that nine-tenths of the opposition to 
the Christian view of miracles is attended by failure 
to recognize the Christian issue. Christianity did 
not and does not raise the question of the bare pos- 
sibility of miracles. The issue is a far larger one, 
of which miracles in the usual sense are a part 
only. Men often deal with the miracles of Jesus as 
if he were merely a thaumaturgist or wonderworking 
fakir, with no more practically serious claim upon 
us. When men discuss the miracles of Christ let 
them not beg the question by isolating them in a 
manner foreign to him. These remarks apply to 
all the other aspects of the work and claims of 
Christ. They must be viewed as a whole and related 
properly to him. 

The object of present effort, then, is to obtain 
a comprehensive view of Christ as we find it in 
the Gospels. For the time, let it be understood, we 
are not making an argument. The argument will 
follow. We are simply endeavoring to ascertain 



A STUDY OF FACTS 95 

the facts from which the argument may be con- 
structed. Indeed, we are persuaded that, properly 
attended to, the facts themselves will constitute an 
argument to the unbiased mind. It is believed also 
that the portrayal given will bear internal evidences 
so convincing that the candid reader will not be 
disposed to go behind the picture to question the 
records from which it is taken. This, however, 
remains to be seen. The reader himself must judge. 
101. Who and what, then, was Jesus Christ? 
There is no longer any question that a being bearing 
this name once walked the earth. The agreement 
is also practically unanimous that he lived at the 
time he is alleged to have lived, and that from him 
sprang the movement in the world which we know 
as Christianity. In order to obtain an adequate 
view of him we are necessarily carried back to the 
historical records of his earthly career, to the words 
of those who wrote about him, and particularly to 
his own words about himself. Later we shall see 
how far history has verified these words. For the 
present we confine our view to his own teachings 
and actions, and the impression made by them upon 
his immediate followers. This impression is a neces- 
sary part of the representation, because it is often 
the best interpretation of the meaning of his words. 
The plan will be to exhibit Christ in a series of 
relationships which will be sufficiently exhaustive 
for our purpose. 

102. Note first, then, Christ's relation to sin. 



96 SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS 

Sin is a primary and cardinal fact in all religious 
experience. It stands at the threshold in all read- 
justments with God. Without prejudging the case 
in the least degree, what do we find? For one thing 
we find nowhere in the records that Jesus ever made 
confession of sin, although in the parable of the 
Pharisee and the publican he denounces self-right- 
eousness and commends confession. The holiest 
among the saints of earth have been most severe 
in self-condemnation. Why the exception in the 
case of Jesus? His teachings as to sin went to 
the innermost springs of conduct. No critic of 
moral behavior who has ever walked the earth was 
so drastic as he in estimating sin. No one has 
endured sorer temptations than he; out of them 
all he came forth unscathed. His enemies hounded 
him to death, yet even they detected in him no sin. 
Indeed, he flung out the challange, "which of you 
convicteth me of sin?" and no one could take it up. 
They accused him of keeping company with pub- 
licans and sinners, which from their standpoint was 
a fault. But, as Dr. Fisher says, "We cannot think 
of a single accusation that does not redound to his 
credit." His own disciples detected in him no sin, 
and the betrayer hanged himself from remorse. 
Moreover, he was the detecter and revealer of sin 
in the hearts of others. In his presence Peter ex- 
claims: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 
Lord" (Luke v.8). And yet searching and radical 
as was his dealing with sin, he was gentle, tactful 



CHEIST SINLESS 97 

and compassionate towards those under its power. 
"Go and sin no more" was his word to the restored 
victims of sin. Strange and new was this that the 
Most Holy should thus commiserate the unholy. 

103. And yet there is another and even higher 
paradox in his relations to sin. To be a sinless 
man, compassionating sinful men, is one thing. To 
exercise the prerogative of forgiving sin is quite 
another. Yet Jesus asserts this prerogative, and 
works a miracle to establish his claim. "He blas- 
phemeth : who can forgive sins but one, even God," 
this was the charge of his critics. Note his reply 
recorded in the oldest Gospel: "That ye may know 
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy) I say unto 
thee, Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thy house. 
And he arose, and straightway took up the bed and 
went forth before them all, insomuch that they were 
all amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw 
it on this fashion" (Mark ii.7, 10-12). 

But Jesus bore a still more unique relation to sin. 
At the last supper he declares that his blood was 
to be shed for the remission of sins (Matt, xxvi.28). 
In the words to the disciples after the resurrection 
he declared that repentance and remission of sins 
should be preached in his name unto all the nations 
(Luke xxiv.47). 

For the present we refrain from drawing any con- 
clusion as to the essential nature of this Person 
who moves thus before us. Well might we ask : who 



98 SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS 

then is this man whom no one convicts of sin, who 
calmly forgives sins, and who asserts that he is to 
bear the penalty of sin in order to its forgiveness in 
the lives of others, and who hesitates not to declare 
that a world-wide evangel of forgiveness shall be 
proclaimed in his name. But we do not now raise 
the prior question as to who he is. One point only 
we may note by way of summary of the above teach- 
ings : They are practically exhaustive of the possible 
relations which a sinless man or even God can sustain 
towards sin. The two distinct spheres of relation- 
ship come clearly into view. 

104. Such a relation to sin suggests at once a 
relation to the law of which sin is a violation. We 
notice in the next place then Christ's relation to the 
law. In his teachings the law of Moses comes into 
comparison or contrast with the law taught by Christ. 
The facts, however, will exhibit his relation to moral 
law universally. 

105. We note at the outset that Jesus contrasts 
himself with all other moral teachers. "Ye have 
heard that it hath been said by them of old time, 
. . . but I say unto you" is a form of expression 
repeatedly found in the Sermon on the Mount 
(Matt, v.-vii.). Old Testament prophets began 

their message with "thus saith the Lord." But here 
is a teacher who announces no source of authority 
other than himself. I do not forget that elsewhere 
Jesus ascribes his teaching to God. That is a fact to 
be allowed due weight. At present we are concerned 



CHRIST LAWGIVER AND LORD 99 

with the remarkable fact that in numerous passages 
he makes himself the center from whence emanates 
his word. Observe also that at this point we are not 
concerned with the moral excellence of Christ's 
teachings, but rather with his function in relation to 
moral law. We find, then, that throughout the Ser- 
mon on the Mount he assumes an authoritative tone. 
He proclaims his teachings as absolute and final. The 
wise and the foolish men are those who do or do not 
hear and keep "these sayings of mine." And so 
throughout the Gospels. The sower of the seed in 
the parables is the Son of Man. 

Again, Jesus fulfills the law of Moses. The sense 
here is not that he obeys the law merely. It means 
far more; it means that he completes it, "fills it 
full" so to speak with meaning and power. He car- 
ries law back into the region of motive, spiritualizes 
and elevates it. His wisdom is seen in his care in 
conserving every fragment of ethical truth which he 
found, but particularly is it seen in his unerring 
skill in penetrating to the kernel and opening up its 
fullness of meaning and making a teaching which was 
external internal, and in making that which was 
relative and transient, absolute and permanent. 

The moral teachings of Moses were as a vessel 
partly filled. Christ filled it to the brim with the 
water of life. Thus he "filled full" those teachings. 
This is true of the ceremonial as well as of the moral 
law, as appears in the Epistle to the Hebrews espe- 
cially. In his sacrificial death he fulfilled the idea 

LOFC. 






100 SYNOPTIC PIGTUEE OF JESUS 

of sacrifice and of priesthood, and forever abrogated 
external sacrifices for sin. This is a distinctive mark 
of Christianity as a religion. Thus he served a uni- 
versal end of the human conscience. For heathen 
sacrifices are but broken shadows of the true. In thus 
fulfilling or filling full ceremonial as well as moral 
law, Christ passed over from the moral to the relig- 
ious realm, and completely fulfilled the possible 
offices in a religious as well as moral ministry to the 
race. 

As a rule Jesus simply assumed the functions 
above described in relation to moral law. Yet he 
openly declares himself Lord. "Many shall say unto 
me in that day, Lord, Lord." "Then shall I profess 
unto them, I never knew you." When he says "I 
came not to destroy the law or the prophets" he 
quietly assumes that he does not belong to the order 
of prophets or other Old Testament teachers and 
that he could so destroy if he chose. We have to re- 
mark also upon his assumed superiority to law as em- 
bodied in institutions. Said he of himself: "A 
greater than the temple is here" (Matt. xii. 6). A 
collison arose between him and the Pharisees which 
gave occasion for an express statement as to his func- 
tion in regard to' Jewish law as embodied in institu- 
tions. He vindicated his conduct in Sabbath observ- 
ance by the simple authoritative declaration: "The 
Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt. xii. 8). 
He announced that the men of Nineveh and the 
queen of the South would rise up in judgment 



CHEIST AND THE KINGDOM 101 

against that generation because he the greater than 
Jonah who preached to the Ninevites, and than 
Solomon whose glories attracted the Queen of Sheba, 
was present among them (Matt. xii. 40-42). And 
lastly he announces that he is to be the judge of all 
men. He is to scrutinize their conduct and adjudi- 
cate upon their eternal destiny. Most surprising of 
all and baffling even yet to interpreters, the standard 
of final judgment relates to himself. Inasmuch as 
we did it or did it not unto him through his own is 
the form of statement employed to determine eternal 
rewards and punishments. It is evident that we are 
dealing here with claims of a most extraordinary 
kind. He announces himself as lawgiver to man- 
kind, and relates himself to human conduct in a 
manner which at least suggests the divine. Christ's 
relation to moral law gives rise to another vitally 
important consideration which we now take up. The 
idea of law belongs to a kingdom in which it can 
be administered. 

106. The consideration referred to is his relation 
to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God or 
the Kingdom of Heaven is central in the teaching 
of Jesus. As to the meaning of the expression we 
need not attempt more than a very brief summary. 
Our chief concern is with his personal relations to 
that Kingdom. 

The teachings of Jesus abound in references to the 
Kingdom of God. The Gospel of Matthew is con- 
structed around the idea, and there are those who 



102 SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS 

consider that in the conception of the Kingdom is 
found an exhaustive summary of all that Jesus 
taught. 1 Dr. Hort gives the following definition of 
the Kingdom: It is "the world of invisible laws by 
which God is ruling and blessing His creatures." As 
Professor Sanday remarks upon this definition the 
points of emphasis are the heavenly origin of the 
Kingdom, the invisible nature of the laws which 
govern it, and especially that these laws are a "world" 
in themselves. They are internally connected, "form 
a system, are a cosmos within the cosmos." Here are 
the notes of the Kingdom. It is a present Kingdom, 
it is "at hand," as Jesus announced. Yet it is future 
in some of its phases. "Thy Kingdom come" is the 
burden of the prayer he taught the disciples. The 
Kingdom of God is both internal and external. It 
is "within you" and cometh not "with observation," 
yet men enter it violently. It is a seed planted which 
becomes the greatest of trees. The inward princi- 
ple works itself out visibly. The Kingdom is local, 
at first confined to the people of Christ's own nation ; 
then it is to become universal. Men from the east 
and the west shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob in the Kingdom. To seek the Kingdom is 
the supreme duty of man, it is the sumrrmm bonum 
of Christianity. To be a worthy member of it is to 
discharge exhaustively religious obligations. 

107. Such is the Kingdom. It is a notable fact 
that it is announced as the Kingdom of God, the 
Kingdom of Heaven. But it is a more notable fact 



CORRECTION 
First five lines on page 103 are misplaced ; they 
should be at the bottom of same page. 



. 



CHRIST FOUNDER OF THE KINGDOM 103 

I 

What manner of man is this who assumes the posi- 
tion of sovereignty in the religious realm and who dis- 
charges an office which seems no less than divine in a 
world of spiritual forces? At this point we simply 
raise t he question. We do not answer it.' We content 
that Jesus announces himself as the King of that 
Kingdom. He founds the Kingdom, and announces 
its laws, as set forth in the Sermon on the Mount 
and elsewhere. "Not everyone that saith unto me 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom/' is one of 
his forms of statement. Christ announces conditions 
of membership in the Kingdom, describes the char- 
acter of its members, fixes the rewards of those who 
labor therein, and the principles on which they are to 
be bestowed. "I appoint unto you a Kingdom, even 
as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat 
and drink in my Kingdom, and ye shall sit on 
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke 
xxii. 29-30). He is the nobleman who goes into the 
far country to receive His Kingdom (Luke xix. 12). 
A quotation from one who has practiced much re- 
serve in dealing with the subject of the Person of 
Christ may close this paragraph. The author of Ecce 
Homo says: "He (Christ) undertook to be the 
Father of an everlasting Kingdom and the legislator 
of a world-wide society." Again the same writer says 
that Christ in describing himself as King "claimed 
the character first of Founder, next of Legislator, 
thirdly, in a certain high and peculiar sense, of 
Judge, of a new divine society." 2 y/ 



104 SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS 

ourselves with remarking that the place and function 
of Christ in relation to the Kingdom are in har- 
mony with what we have learned as to his relations 
to sin and the moral law. 

108. But out of his position at the head of the 
spiritual Kingdom arises another question, and that 
is as to his relation to Providence. As arbiter of the 
religious destinies of men in a spiritual Kingdom, 
stupendous responsibilities devolve upon him. Can 
He control events and forces in the world and carry 
his Kingdom on to its consummation? There can 
be no doubt as to his own answer to this question. 
The reader is referred to chapters twenty-four and 
twenty-five in the Gospel of Matthew and the corre- 
sponding passages in Mark and Luke. These chap- 
ters are an elaborate prophecy of the future of his 
Kingdom. It is unnecessary and would be irrelevant 
for us to delay over the many difficulties of interpre- 
tation here. Some think to convict Jesus of incon- 
sistency or prove the records false. Yet in this con- 
nection he seems to realize the importance of em- 
phasizing the truth of his words and says : "Heaven 
and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass 
away." In the great passage before us he foretells 
the fate of Jerusalem, the sufferings of disciples, the 
struggles of nations, the rise of false Christs, and the 
signs of the end. He portrays the near and the dis- 
tant future, when he the Son of Man shall come, 
when he shall send forth his angels who shall gather 



CHRIST LORD OF PROVIDENCE 105 

together his elect from the four winds "from one end 
of the heaven to the other" (Matt. xxiv. 31). 

109. Jesus concludes the representation here with 
the parable of the virgins and that of the talents, fol- 
lowed by his graphic description of the last judgment 
wherein he himself occupies the throne and assembles 
mankind before him. As the fitting sequel and cli- 
max to the above remarkable claims over the forces of 
Providence as they operate in human history, we find 
Jesus at the very last commanding his disciples to 
evangelize all nations, coupled with the promise, "Lo, 
I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world" (Matt, xxviii. 20). He had previously pro- 
claimed himself the Lord of history : "This Gospel of 
the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for 
a testimony unto all nations; and then shall the end 
come" (Matt. xxiv. 14). A pleasing incident indi- 
cates that Lordship in another light. Concerning the 
anointing at Bethany he says: "Wheresoever this 
Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that 
also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of 
for a memorial of her." This prophecy is fulfilled as 
I pen these words as it has been in a thousand ways 
in Christian history. To sum up, Jesus predicted in 
outline the spiritual history of the race and claimed 
that his own was the hand upon the helm guiding to 
the destined haven. 

110. We must next indicate briefly Christ's rela- 
tion to the forces of nature. For behind Providence 
is another world of forces. The cosmic order is as 



106 SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS 

real as the Providential, and indeed a part of it. The 
recorded relation of Christ to nature is clear. The 
miracles of the blighting of the fig tree, the multiply- 
ing of the loaves and fishes upon two occasions, the 
walking on the water, the stilling of the tempest, and 
his ascent from Olivet, to say nothing of the draught 
of fishes and the healings of all kinds and the rais- 
ings from the dead and his own resurrection appear- 
ances, are clear evidence of his relations to the world 
of natural forces. He is, according to the record at 
least, their Lord. Nowhere have they overcome him. 
"Be muzzled," was his command to the howling tem- 
pest, which obeyed him. So always nature yields to his 
will whenever conflict arises between it and him. 

The world of evil forces in like manner is subject 
to his sway: "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning 
from heaven" (Luke x. 18). This was in connec- 
tion with the preaching of his Gospel. Evil spirits 
are subject to him whenever these oppose the onward 
progress of his work. 

111. Mark in the next place Christ's relation to 
mankind. He certainly accepted the title of Messiah 
of the Jewish expectations, though far from their 
ideal as to the Messianic character (Matt. xvi. 17; 
Mark xiv. 61, 62). He was descended from David 
on ihe human side, though the expression, "Son of 
David," Christ employs only once where he propounds 
a question and raises a difficulty about it (Mark xii. 
35). The favorite title which Jesus applied to him- 
self was Son of Man. This much discussed title of 



CHRIST AND MANKIND 107 

Jesus, whatever else it means, relates Him to the 
entire race. He is the universal man, one in s}'mpa- 
thy with every man. In the title there is an "infinite 
sense of brotherhood/' of oneness with the race. He 
thus becomes the representative and ideal of human- 
ity, identified with it in interest and destiny. Pas- 
sionately devoted to the service of men, he uniformly 
employs his miraculous power not for himself but for 
them. 

112. But observe next this paradox: His detach- 
ment from men was as marked as his identity with 
them. He is apart from them. Nay, he is for them 
the object of faith in religion. "Come unto me all ye 
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you 
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me : for 
I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my bur- 
den is light" (Matt. xi. 28, 29). He accepted the 
worship of men. After the incident of the walking 
on the water the record says : "And they that were in 
the boat worshipped him, saying, of a truth thou 
art the Son of God" (Matt. xiv. 33). So also after 
the resurrection they worshipped him (Matt, xxviii. 
17). After Peter's great confession, Jesus says: "On 
this rock I will build my church and the gates of 
Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give unto 
thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven : and what- 
soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall 
be loosed in heaven" (Matt. xvi. 18, 19). As already 



108 SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS 

indicated, the rewards and punishments of the last 
day are the result of service rendered to or withheld 
from Christ himself. But there is no need to multi- 
ply passages. Jesus is himself the center of his re- 
ligion. It is he and not his teachings that is the 
primary object of devotion. To follow him exhausts 
duty. To reject him is to be destroyed. His self- 
assertion in the religious sphere is absolute. Nothing 
can be added to his words to exalt him to a higher 
place in his office towards humanity. Again we quote 
from Ecce Homo: "He considered the ultimate and 
highest decision upon men's deeds, that decision to 
which all the unjustly condemned at human tribunals 
appeal, and which weighs not the ueed only but mo- 
tives and temptations and ignorances, and all the 
complex conditions of the deed — he considered, in 
short, heaven and hell to be in his hand." 3 

113. Next, we ask, what of Christ's relations to 
God ? Hitherto we have confined our attention to the 
synoptic Gospels. We need not seek elsewhere now 
for a clear answer to the above question. One fact, 
however, needs to be noted. Jesus expressly forbade 
premature announcement of his highest claims, doubt- 
less for prudential reasons. Doubtless also he de- 
sired that the significance of his person should dawn 
upon the disciples through his manifestation of him- 
self in word and deed. He would not impose it as a 
dogma of authority. His ideal was that his revela- 
tion of himself should become their discovery of him. 



CHRIST AND GOD 109 

This explains his reticence in Matthew, Mark and 
Luke. But observe the facts of his manifestation. 

His unbroken fellowship with God, his God-con- 
sciousness, is an outstanding fact in the record. 
From the age of twelve at least, his sense of God's 
fatherhood appears. It is one of the supreme notes 
of his doctrine. Another is his claim to be the Re- 
vealer of God to man. Here we come upon one of 
the chief ends of his mission. 

Especially consider his assertion of knowledge, 
power and authority in a striking passage: "All 
things have been delivered unto me of my Father: 
and no one knoweth the Son save the Father ; neither 
doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" (Matt, 
xi. 27). His omnipresence seems to be taught in 
clear terms: "Where two or three are gathered to- 
gether in my name, there am I in the midst of them" 
(Matt, xviii. 20). So also in the passage quoted, 
"Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the 
world." We need only refer again to his asserted 
power to forgive sins and the exercise of the power, 
and to his repeated declaration that he is to judge the 
world. We note, however, his statement: "All 
authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on 
earth" (Matt, xxviii. 18). Observe also that in the 
next verse he commands disciples to be baptized 
"in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost." Here the Son is co-ordinate and 
equal with the Father and Holy Spirit, Finally, he 



110 SYNOPTIC PICTUEE OF JESUS 

was murdered for blasphemy because he made him- 
self equal with God. Thus the Jews understood his 
claim to be the Son of God. He does not deny but 
acknowledges the charge of equality. A word would 
have set them right if they were wrong (Matt. xxvi. 
63-66). Did he go to his death "for a metaphor/' 
as one has expressed it ? Did he suffer himself to be 
murdered for a slight misunderstanding of his 
claims ? 

114. To complete the representation of Christ as 
contained in the first three Gospels we should note 
that from the outset of his ministry his plan was defi- 
nitely outlined before him. There is nowhere a sign 
of wavering. The view that he aimed first at a tem- 
poral Kingdom and later abandoned the idea is 
wholly without warrant. Why ? Because first in the 
temptations after his baptism he repudiates temporal 
power. Secondly, because in his earliest preaching 
the conditions of membership in his Kingdom are 
spiritual, repentance and faith. The combination of 
these two conceptions, that of Kingdom with the out- 
cast virtues of the ancient world, repentance and 
faith, was itself a marvel either of folly or of origin- 
ality. The issue proved it to be the latter. Jesus re- 
peatedly predicted his death and resurrection. The 
indications are numerous that he knew the end from 
the beginning. Certainly from his baptism onward 
his plan lay before his mind in clear outline, and in 
no particular does he waver from his steadfast course. 

115. Consider also lastly that so far as the record 



CHRIST'S ENTRANCE AND DEPARTURE 111 

narrates Jesus Christ entered the world by a miracle, 
and left it by a miracle, and lived and moved in an at- 
mosphere of the supernatural in much of the inter- 
vening period, indeed in all the period of the public 
ministry. The credibility of miracles is not in ques- 
tion here, but only the contents of the record as pre- 
sented in the Gospels. This concludes our setting 
forth of the facts as to Christ. We must consider 
in the next chapter the meaning of these facts. We 
have here data sufficient to serve as the basis for 
a generalization. We have premises, at least, on 
which some kind of an argument may be constructed. 
If we have done no violence to the records as we have 
them, at least our premise will be undisputed. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MEANING OP THE PICTURE. 

116. Jesus Christ is the center of the struggle. 
The case for Christianity is won or lost according as 
he stands or falls. The argument in this division of 
our subject seeks to show the reality and power of his 
claims. In this and several succeeding chapters we 
consider the facts as set forth regarding Christ in 
the preceding chapter and in other parts of the New 
Testament representation. In later portions of the 
book we shall consider the Christ of experience and 
the Christ of history. We deal here with facts and 
their interpretation. If we pervert the facts, or err 
in classifying them, or if we are wrong in inferences 
from them, we shall be open to attack. Our method, 
however, will accord with the principles of scientific 
reasoning and induction. The principle of causation 
and of law in the moral and personal realm will un- 
derlie all we say. 

117. The only hypothesis which adequately ac- 
counts for the representations of the synoptic Gospels 
is that Jesus was a supernatural Person, possessing 
attributes and powers above those of ordinary men, 
who entered the world for the redemption of man 
from sin. This bears directly upon the doctrine of 

112 



UNITY OF THE PICTURE 113 

the Trinity. But we leave the Trinity out of our 
consideration here. It is a doctrine distinct from 
that of the Person of Christ and should not be con- 
founded with it. We proceed now to apply the above 
hypothesis to the material we have gathered from the 
evangelical record as presented in the preceding 
chapter. 

118. (1) This hypothesis alone reduces to unity 
and consistency the portrait of Jesus in its various 
parts as set forth by the evangelists. Each evangelist 
combines the parts in a different way, but all the 
essential features appear in each. The beauty of the 
moral character and teaching, the miracles, the exer- 
cise of superhuman powers and functions, along with 
a lowliness and simplicity in his manner of life — 
these elements all appear in each of the Gospels. 
Viewed apart from the hypothesis we have adopted 
these elements are extremely discordant. To be a 
prophet was no new calling in Israel; and like a 
prophet Jesus spoke God's truth to men. But Jesus 
went further. He spoke not merely for God, but as 
God. He claimed and exercised the function of Law- 
giver. His "Verily, I say unto" no prophet adopted 
as his mode of utterance. Again, to point men to 
God as the fountain of life would have been a lofty 
mission for a religious teacher, but to offer himself 
as the adequate supply of all spiritual needs was on 
a totally different plane. Yet Jesus said: "Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." Jesus 
might have adopted the role of the greatest of all 



114 MEANING OF THE PICTURE 

God's messengers which past history had brought to 
men without doing violence to our ordinary sense of 
fitness. But to proclaim himself as a new starting 
point for history, and as the central force in its future 
course, leaves us without a precedent. Our astonish- 
ment is greater still when, coupled with the most 
explicit declarations that he came to reveal God, he 
offers himself as the object of the worship of man- 
kind. These are a few only of the elements which 
on any theory, save the one we have adopted, are 
hopelessly discordant, but which fall into unity the 
moment they are viewed in its light. 

119. Consider also this fact, that in a series of re- 
lationships we discovered a remarkable consistency in 
the representations of Christ. When he forgave sins 
it suggested a function as to moral law of which sin 
is a violation. We found accordingly that he asserted 
the claim of Lawgiver. As Lawgiver it was in accord- 
ance with the fitness of things that he should be the 
King in the new Kingdom he came to found, and so 
he declared himself. But to be sovereign of a world- 
wide Kingdom involved control of Providential 
forces. These he calmly assumed. This in turn in- 
volved still higher powers, and we found that in all 
his collisions with the forces of nature and of evil 
he controlled and guided them to his ends. The tacit 
assumption in all the above was that he sustained a 
unique religious relation to mankind, including that 
of final judge. His sayings are filled with assertions 
that he is the religious finality for man. Nothing 



RELATIONSHIPS EXPLAINED 115 

short of a divine nature will answer as the back- 
ground of all the preceding claims. Accordingly we 
found explicit declarations of powers and attributes 
nothing less than divine. 

Parallel with each of the above claims was an- 
other on the human plane. Sinlessness as man was 
coupled with the forgiveness of sin. An example of 
obedience to law was coupled with the assertion of the 
prerogative of King and Lawgiver. His power over 
the forces of Providence and nature was accompanied 
by a normal human life in harmony with the forces of 
both realms. The exercise of divine attributes was 
combined with a steadfast refusal to employ them 
for himself which remains one of the greatest marvels 
of his career. 

Let it be carefully noted that the above somewhat 
systematic and cumulative outline of the qualities and 
attributes of Christ is the writer's arrangement of the 
material found in the Gospels. The records, however, 
do not present the material in a formal way. But the 
fact that what the records say is capable of this ex- 
haustive and systematic arrangement is a striking 
and significant fact in itself. In explanation it 
should be noted that the career of Jesus was under 
the control of his redemptive purpose. Formal teach- 
ing as to his Person rarely appears. It comes out in- 
cidentally, rather, and thus constitutes the most con- 
vincing kind of proof. It shows what were the as- 
sumptions underlying all Christ's work. It reveals 
the background. That his divine claims can be so 



116 MEANING OF THE PICTUEE 

completely gathered from the brief synoptic records 
is convincing evidence of these claims. The horti- 
culturist seeking to produce a practical artistic effect 
in the arrangement of all the flowers of a given de- 
partment of the kingdom of flowers would not ar- 
range them as a botanist would classify them; be- 
cause the artistic and scientific ideals are not identical. 
But the test of his success would be both artistic and 
scientific. The eye would be pleased and the botanist 
also would be able to find materials for a complete 
classification. So with the artless and simple nar- 
ratives of the life of Christ. His practical purpose 
of helpfulness is the leading note in them. Yet the 
attributes of the supernatural Being come into view 
in the most natural way. 

120. Think also of the unity and consistency of 
the miraculous element in the account of Christ. It 
is said that the naturalist by the use of the laws of 
proportion can reconstruct ideally the skeleton of an 
animal belonging to an extinct species from the data 
furnished by a single bone. So with the miracles of 
Jesus. The Virgin birth, whatever else may be said 
about it, harmonizes with the ascension from Olivet. 
The latter is the only fitting sequel to the resurrec- 
tion. The resurrection, in turn, was the only vindi- 
cation which, after the crucifixion, could save Christ's 
previous claim to divine sonship and avert ruin for 
his cause. The miracles of the public ministry, on 
the supposition of a supernatural Person, are the 
normal expression of the powers resident in his na- 



ELEMENTS OF CHRIST'S CONSCIOUSNESS 117 

ture. They were the sparks emitted by the central 
fires within. The supernatural elements in the life 
of Christ are of a piece throughout. The most sen- 
sitive artistic faculty cannot find an incongruity in 
them. It will be observed that we are here not dis- 
cussing the question of miracles as such, but point- 
ing out simply the unity and consistency of the 
miraculous elements in the records. This is entirely 
independent of the other question which we consider 
in a later chapter. 

121. Think next of how the unities above sketched 
were borne in the consciousness of Jesus. It is doubt- 
ful whether we may understand this consciousness as 
completely as some attempt to show. But the facts 
warrant our doing so partially. Consider, then, the 
problem of unifying in consciousness the seven-fold 
relationship pointed out in the previous chapter : To 
sin as its pardoner; to moral law as legislator; to 
the moral kingdom as king; to Providence as its 
Lord; to the forces of nature as Master; to the 
race as the sufficient object of religious faith and 
final judge; to God as equal in attribute and func- 
tion. Add to the above the problem of preserving in 
consciousness the unity of life-plan and purpose with- 
out wavering to the end. Complete the difficulty for 
consciousness by trying to maintain the supernatural 
role through the public career until death. Now who 
shall assert that any mere man was equal to the task ? 
What consummate actor or impostor ever approxi- 
mated such a role on the stage of real life ? Moreover, 



118 MEANING OF THE PICTUEB 

what literary artist ever depicted a character so 
unique and transcendent out of his own imagination? 
Yet according to the synoptic record Jesus unifies 
in His consciousness, speech, and actions all the above 
discordant and unparalleled elements with the great- 
est ease and naturalness. The Gospel story runs as 
smoothly and beautifully as a clear brook in the sun- 
shine. The hypothesis that he was the supernatural 
Person he claimed to be alone serves as a principle 
large and strong enough to bind all the facts together. 
He was Son of God, and Son of Man, and he was the 
Messiah of Israel. The offices and characters im- 
plied in these titles were blended in a matchless and 
transcendent harmony. 

122. (2) Consider again the closely related point, 
the interdependence of the parts in the representation 
of Jesus. This also demands the supernatural hy- 
pothesis for its explanation. Note the interdepend- 
ence of the sinlessness and the Virgin birth. No 
teaching of science is more explicit to-day than that 
heredity is a force in the production of character. 
Some even speak of "the brute inheritance" of man 
as his yet dominant trait. How will the opponents 
of Christ's supernatural claims, who concede his 
moral purity, reconcile the latter with the above 
teaching of science? Again, He himself declared 
that his resurrection was to be the chief "sign" among 
all his mighty works. His public ministry, his claims 
to be the only interpreter of God, and himself to be 
the end and aim of religion for man, demanded mira- 



INTERDEPENDENCE OF PAETS 119 

cles as attestation. The claims and the miracles are 
bound up together. Then, too, the moral quality of 
the life and the teachings are bound up with the 
moral quality of the miracles. If the miracles are 
later accretions to the authentic record of the moral 
life and teachings, how comes it that the motive, end, 
and result in the miracles wear the guise of a moral 
purity and elevation equal to the most beautiful and 
divine of the moral teachings? Miracles were the 
deed of which the Gospel message was the word. 
In act Jesus served men, so far as the record goes, 
through miracles. Without these he was a preacher 
but not a doer of the word. The problem raised by 
the miracles of the Gospels is not of the bare super- 
natural works; but rather of those works plus the 
moral message, plus the divine claim of Christ. Add 
this, also, that the record of the miracles is bound up 
with the record of the remaining portion of the por- 
traiture. Strauss even went so far as to say that we 
must accept these supernatural features of the rec- 
ords or deny that we have any knowledge of Jesus. 
Consider further how the claim of Jesus as ethical 
teacher is dependent upon his religious function. 
That is, if he was wrong in letting men worship him, 
how could he be right in teaching men the way to 
please God? How can we eulogize him as the pro- 
claimer of the beatitudes and the golden rule, and 
condemn him for inviting the race to come unto him 
for rest, and predicting that the race would stand be- 
fore him for judgment? Why praise the music that 



120 MEANING OF THE PICTURE 

lures men to heaven and deny that the player brings 
to his task a heavenly skill ? 

123. (3) Consider also the originality and vital- 
ity of the picture. Jesus lives before us as we follow 
him through the Gospel record. Not only is this life 
unparalleled in its moral beauty and grandeur. This 
also may be said : It bears no trace of being an im- 
aginative production. As has been well said, idealized 
characters as described in literature are very vague. 
They do not affect us with that strange persuasiveness 
of life which we discover in a faithful biography. Dr. 
Eobertson Nicoll says: "George Eliot in her last 
novel, Daniel Deronda, suggests a parallel between her 
hero and the Eedeemer approaching Israel, and tries 
to make him an ideal character ; but, as has been said, 
he is as feeble and colorless a character as can be, and 
was well enough described by Mr. Hutton as a 'moral 
mist.' Nothing credible, nothing memorable, noth- 
ing clear is recorded of him. It is true also that the 
lives of the saints are hard to write, for they also 
are historically ineffective. The divine communion 
weakens the personal and positive element in them, 
and the self is drowned/' And again : "It is almost 
a law in literature that any portraits of the ideal in 
the least degree satisfactory are closely transcribed 
from life. . . . The wonderfulness, the original- 
ity of the character described in the Gospels, the 
minuteness, the freshness, the detail of the whole por- 
trait, prove that it is drawn from life." 1 

124. (4) In the next place we must consider our 



LOWLY AND HEROIC VIRTUES 121 

hypothesis in relation to the moral grandeur of Jesus. 
At this point it almost looks as if the believing and 
the unbelieving world might at length reach an agree- 
ment, so nearly unanimous is the verdict of friend 
and foe of the Christian religion. A brief sketch is 
all that is possible. 

125. Men do not weary of pointing out the sym- 
metry of moral character and union of opposite traits 
in Jesus. Take them first on the plane of the less 
heroic and passive virtues. Where does humility 
shine with such a radiance as in him? Who among 
the sons of men were ever so "meek and lowly in 
heart?" Did ever weary humanity feel a touch so 
tender? Did patience ever conquer so splendid a 
Kingdom? Did modesty and gentleness ever find 
so complete an incarnation ? Or self-denial ever mas- 
ter a life so completely ? 

Over against these lowly virtues note the heroic 
ones. "All power has been given unto me," he said. 
"Woe unto you scribes and Pharisee hypocrites," was 
his own hot blast of judgment. Speaking of himself 
he said if this stone fall on a man it will grind him 
to powder. He alone was Lord and Master, the dis- 
ciples were brethren. What mortal is it that hurls out 
this challenge, "Which of you convicteth me of sin ?" 
He it was who was filled with an ambition to rule the 
race and predicted His coming on the clouds of 
heaven surrounded by angels. 

126. The union of opposites in perfect balance 
and consistency appears in Jesus. Other men are 



122 MEANING OF THE PICTURE 

fragments. He is the complete man. He is weary 
and asleep on the boat as any tired apostle might have 
been; but he stands up and with a voice of power 
stills a tempest. He weeps with the other broken- 
hearted ones at a grave ; but with a divine voice calls 
forth the dead Lazarus. He yields to His captors as 
any culprit might have done ; but works a miracle to 
restore a severed ear and rebukes the rash disciple 
who smote it off. 

Then, too, consider his life of unselfish service. 
There is no variation in the successive scenes. Read 
the Gospel of Mark, for example. He rebukes the 
fever and it vanishes, he touched the leper who bore 
about his "death in life," and commanded the 
demoniac who bore about his "hell in life," and the 
poor victims were set free. The supernatural power 
he never uses for himself. He holds it as an inci- 
dental thing and so employs it No wonder this trait 
of self-restraint coupled with boundless power has 
been called the "masterpiece" of Jesus. His aim was 
redemptive. He would radically cure man of sin. 
Unwaveringly to the end he pursues the redemptive 
purpose and gives his life to effect it. And how sub- 
lime the end. See him in the garden yonder. "Into 
the woods my Master went, clean forspent, forspent," 
sings Lanier. But "out of the woods" the Master 
went "and he was well content." For there he had 
wrestled and conquered. He bore the world on his 
heart, and on the cross in the great deep of shame he 



TEACHING AS TO GOD AND MAN 123 

calmly prays for his murderers: "Father, forgive 
them; they know not what they do." 

127. Then, too, how gracious was his teaching con- 
cerning God. God is the Great Father. His heart is 
love, and yet a love which acts on principles of 
righteousness. The most exquisite and satisfying of 
all doctrines of God came from his lips, whom some 
have declared an impostor or deluded in his teaching 
concerning his own relations to the divine nature. 
Man, too, is wonderfully exalted in this moral revela- 
tion of Christ. He is unspeakably precious in God's 
sight. The hairs of his head are all numbered. The 
world is not equal to him in value. Says Doctor Fair- 
bairn, speaking of Christ's doctrine of God and 
man: "God is the Father, everlasting in his love. 
Love was the end for which he made the world, for 
which he made every human soul. His glory is to 
diffuse happiness, to fill up the silent places of the 
universe with voices that speak out of glad hearts. 
Because he made man for love he cannot bear man to 
be lost. Eather than see the loss he will suffer sac- 
rifice. Sacrifice to him will become joy when it re- 
stores the ruined, but loss to man will be absolute, 
for losing himself he loses all. So the Great Father 
loves man in spite of his sin, in the midst of his guilt, 
loves that he may save, and even should he fail in 
saving he does not cease to love. In the place we call 
hell eternal love as really is as in the place we call 
heaven, though in the one place it is the complacency 
of pleasure in the holy and the happy which seems 



124 MEANING OF THE PICTUBE 

like the brightness of the everlasting sunshine or the 
glad nmsic of waves that break in perennial laughter, 
but in the other it is the compassion or pity for the 
bad and the miserable which seems like a face shaded 
with everlasting regret, or the muffled weeping of a 
sorrow too deep to be heard. That grand thought of 
a God who is the eternal Father, all the more regal 
and sovereign that he is absolutely Father, can never 
fail to touch the heart of the man who understands 
it, be he savage or sage/' 2 



CHAPTER IX. 

OPPOSING THEORIES. 

128. The moral grandeur of the evangelical por- 
trait, as before intimated, has profoundly impressed 
the unbelieving mind. A few quotations are added 
by way of illustration of the statement. The first is 
a passage from a book which, when it first appeared, 
was regarded by many as one of the most deadly of 
the attacks upon Christianity. In Supernatural Re- 
ligion we read: "The teaching of Jesus carried 
morality to the sublimest point attained or even at- 
tainable by humanity. The influence of his spiritual 
religion has been rendered doubly great by the un- 
paralleled purity and elevation of his own character. 
. . . He presented the rare spectacle of a life, so 
far as we can estimate it, uniformly noble and con- 
sistent with his own lofty principles, so that 'the imi- 
tation of Christ' has become almost the final word in 
the preaching of his religion, and must continue to 
be one of the most powerful elements of its perma- 
nence." 

129. Benan, whose writings about Jesus have at- 
tracted attention throughout the civilized world, and 
who went so far as to assert that Jesus was influenced 
by his environment to adopt immoral means to propa- 

125 



126 OPPOSING THEOBIES 

gate his teachings, has said: "Jesus is in every re- 
spect unique, and nothing can be compared with him. 
Be the unlooked for phenomena of the future what 
they may, Jesus will not be surpassed. Noble Ini- 
tiator, repose now in thy glory! Thy work is fin- 
ished, thy divinity established. A thousand times 
more loving, a thousand times more loved since thy 
death, than during the days of thy course here be- 
low, thou shalt become the corner stone of human- 
ity, insomuch that to tear thy name from this world 
would be to shake it to its very foundations. No 
more shall men distinguish between thee and God." 1 

Professor G. J. Eomanes in his little work 
Thoughts on Religion, published after his death, 
clearly shows the movement of his mind towards 
Christian faith. He says : "Those in whom the re- 
ligious sentiment is intact, but who have rejected 
Christianity on intellectual grounds, still almost deify 
Jesus Christ." 2 Eomanes himself became a Chris- 
tian believer before his death, after suffering long a 
scientific eclipse of faith. 

J. S. Mill in his Essays on Religion makes a series 
of remarkable statements about Christ coupled with 
the denial that Christ ever claimed to be equal with 
God. He says that the Divine Person which Chris- 
tianity has ever held up as the standard of excellence 
is available for the absolute unbeliever, and can never 
more be lost to humanity. "It is the God incarnate, 
more than the God of the Jews or of nature, who, 
being idealized, has taken so great and so salutary a 



MILL, STRAUSS, AND GOETHE 127 

hold on the modern mind." He says whatever else 
criticism may take away, "Christ is still left, a unique 
figure, not more unlike all his precursors than all his 
followers, even those who had the benefit of his per- 
sonal teaching." Repudiating the view that Christ is 
not historical, he says: "The tradition of followers 
suffices to insert any number of marvels, and may 
have inserted all thr miracles, which he is reputed to 
have wrought. But who among his disciples or among 
their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings 
ascribed to Jesus or of imagining the life and charac- 
ter revealed in the Gospels? Certainly not the fish- 
ermen of Galilee ; certainly not St. Paul, whose char- 
acter and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different 
sort; still less the early Christian writers." 3 

130. Strauss, who certainly could not be classed 
with evangelical believers, says that Christ is "the 
highest object we can possibly imagine with respect 
to religion, the Being without whose presence in the 
mind perfect piety is impossible." 4 

Goethe says: "I esteem the Gospels to be thor- 
oughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the 
reflected splendor of a sublimity proceeding from the 
person of Jesus Christ, and of as divine a kind as was 
ever manifested upon earth." 6 

Matthew Arnold, who denied the supernatural and 
poetically described the Syrian stars as looking down 
upon the grave of Jesus, wrote : "Try all the ways of 
righteousness you can think of, and you will find that 



128 OPPOSING THEORIES 

no way brings you to it except the way of Jesus, but 
that this way does bring you to it." 8 

131. Another writer equally opposed to orthodox 
Christianity, Mr. Lecky, has said: "It was reserved 
for Christianity to present to the world an ideal char- 
acter which through all the changes of eighteen cen- 
turies has filled the hearts of men with an impassioned 
love, and has shown itself capable of acting in all 
ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has not 
only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the high- 
est incentive to its practice, and has exerted so deep 
an influence that it may be truly said that the sim- 
ple record of three short years of active life has done 
more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the 
disquisitions of philosophers, and all the exhortations 
of moralists. Amid all the sins and failings, amid 
all the priestcraft, the persecution, and fanaticism 
which have defaced the church, it has preserved in 
the character and example of its Founder an endur- 
ing principle of regeneration." 7 

132. These quotations and concessions might be 
indefinitely extended. The moral beauty and excel- 
lence of Christ and his teachings have so fascinated 
mankind that it is extremely rare that his sinlessness 
has been questioned; even then in almost every in- 
stance to meet a difficulty rather than as a result of 
evidence. In this connection a significant fact is 
to be noted. It is this : The growth towards unity 
of view as to the moral perfection of Christ has kept 
pace in recent years with the growth of critical study 



MOKAL AND PHYSICAL MIBACLES 120 

of the records. The more closely these records are in- 
spected the less are men able to discover flaws in his 
character. Not only so; this growing unanimity as 
to Christ's moral perfection offsets in a striking man- 
ner the current objection to miracles on grounds of 
natural law. The growth of the disposition to recog- 
nize a moral miracle along with an indisposition to 
concede those in the physical order is, to say the least, 
quite suggestive. It raises the question whether after 
all the physical miracles do not bear a relation to 
the moral which many objectors have overlooked. It 
also raises the further question whether these object- 
ors have squarely faced the issue as to Christian mira- 
cles. This matter will be taken up when we come 
to consider miracles. 

So far, then, faith and unbelief are practically one 
in the moral estimate of Jesus. But if the moral esti- 
mate be correct, then the Christian's religious estimate 
of him must be equally so. If he was a pretender as 
miracle-worker, and as the object of worship for men, 
and a pretender in claiming divine attributes, can he 
be other than a pretender as a moral teacher? The 
old alternative stands. Christ was God or else he was 
a bad man. 

Again, if he were deluded as to his relations to the 
divine nature, in making himself equal with God, how 
comes it that his general doctrine of God as Father, 
and in other respects, has become by common consent 
the highest possible conception of God? Why so 
wondrously wise about God's nature and character 



130 OPPOSING THEORIES 

and so strangely ignorant as to his own relations to 
God? Nothing but an antecedent objection to the 
idea could blind men to the evidence for the fact of 
this claim of Christ. Or to put it in a slightly dif- 
ferent way, if the effects, that is, the moral teachings 
and the teachings about God's character are consid- 
ered genuine and have been verified by experience 
and history, can we logically explain the cause, that 
is the supernatural Person, as delusion or imposture ? 
The case can be put perhaps more strongly still : Can 
the teachings as to morals and God's character viewed 
as abstractions be considered true, the result of the 
highest wisdom, while his teachings viewed in rela- 
tion to his own Person be regarded as the result of 
delusion or imposture? For let it be kept in mind 
that he was himself the ethical motive, and is himself 
a constituent part of his doctrine of God. Christ's 
teachings cannot be bisected in any such way. Eigh- 
teen centuries have proven that the doctrine of the 
Person is bound up indissolubly with the ethical ideal 
in practical experience, as Part III of this book will 
show. They are related in the same organic way in 
the record. Our hypothesis then explains all the 
facts. No other does. We must now briefly note 
some of these hypotheses, although the replies to them 
have already been anticipated and two of them briefly 
touched upon. 

133. Is the portrait of Jesus an ideal production? 
Did some religious and literary genius or geniuses 
create it ? The declaration of Rousseau that it would 



NOT IDEAL PRODUCTION 131 

require a Jesus to forge a Jesus at once comes to 
mind. But why this single literary phenomenon in 
an age of commonplace ? Why no similar productions 
in later ages? So life-like and real is this creation 
of literary genius, if it be such, that we have as a 
result a paradox unparalleled. Says Henry Rogers, 
speaking of the supposition we are considering : "The 
very qualities which should have warned the world 
that it was a mere ideal on which it was gazing, have 
not prevented its mistaking it for reality ; the painter 
has so overdone his part that the stupid world has 
vehemently contended and generally believed that the 
painting is no painting at all; nay, rather than be- 
lieve it such has been willing to receive all those 
supernatural traits with which it is fraught, as also 
copied from reality/' 8 The theory is absurd. A dif- 
ference of opinion about a painting has not con- 
vulsed the Roman empire, sent thousands to the 
martyr's stake, regenerated modern Europe through 
Luther, projected the modern missionary enterprise. 
134. But was the portrait the result of gradual 
accretions of myth around an original genuine 
nucleus ? This again is wholly untenable. For such 
a fictitious picture as above described which has de- 
ceived the world into the belief that it was a copy of 
life is more wonderful still as a result of myth-mak- 
ing through generations. We have seen the remarkable 
unity in diversity. Whence came this remarkable co- 
operation of mythologists ? How came they to re- 
main so true to the moral nucleus and so wild in add- 



132 OPPOSING THEORIES 

ing the supernatural to it? Or how came they so 
miraculously to leave the original moral nucleus un- 
touched, if this part of the painting is true?. What 
restrained them so completely at one point and gave 
them such license everywhere else ? Doctor Row illus- 
trates the absurdity of the theory that the picture of 
Jesus is a result of the work of independent literary 
artists by referring to the celebrated painting called 
the "Marriage at Cana in Galilee," in the Louvre at 
Paris. "It consists of a considerable number of fig- 
ures in a common grouping, all of which blend into 
one another, and form an harmonious unity of concep- 
tion. Assuming, then, that the picture is not the 
work of a single artist, but of many, each of them, in 
accordance with the above theory, must have spontane- 
ously painted a number of figures, from which when 
a selection had been made, and the selected figures 
were placed side by side, this celebrated picture was 
formed. Such an account of its origin is incredible." 9 
It is incredible that a portraiture exhibiting such 
unity in diversity, such moral grandeur, such unsel- 
fishness, a character so diverse from the age iu 
which it arose, and this in a narrative or group 
of narratives which are so true to the historic en- 
vironment, could have arisen as a conglomerate 
from many sources. Besides the foregoing, one 
fact alone destroys the hypothesis, viz., the teaching 
and missionary labors of the apostle Paul. His 
earlier epistles are the oldest New Testament writ- 
ings. They exhibit the action of the evangelic por- 



THEORY OF DEIFICATION 133 

trait as a historic and religious force in the world, 
before the Gospels were written. The regeneration 
of society by the Jesus of the Gospels had been in- 
augurated before the record of his life was made. 
This we take up later and let the statement of tho 
fact answer for the present. 

135. But the tendency of the age was to deify 
men. It was a superstitious age when men were 
ready to believe anything, it is urged by some. Jesus 
was deified by his followers as Roman emperors were 
sometimes deified. This theory forgets that Jesus 
was murdered by Jews for blasphemy in making him- 
self equal with God. The supreme sin to a Jew was 
for man to claim such equality. In later Judaism the 
tendency was constantly to put God further and fur- 
ther away from man. Whatever might have been true 
elsewhere, such a deification could never have arisen 
among the Jews as the result of a common tendency. 

136. Other theories we need not now consider. 
We have in our treatment anticipated practically all 
the theories. The theory that Christ was a product 
of evolution will be considered in a separate chapter. 
Two or three brief general remarks apply to all the 
opposing theories hitherto examined : (1) They break 
the unity of the evangelic representation and leave 
essential parts unaccounted for. (2) They fail to ac- 
count for the origin of the portraiture itself, regard- 
less of the question as to an original to which it corre- 
sponds. (3) They fail to account for the unity and 
harmony of the three Gospels we have studied, as in- 



134 OPPOSING THEORIES 

dependent witnesses to Christ. If they are connected 
with each other, a very striking unity is preserved. 

(4) These opposing theories contradict each other. 
They mutually devour one another. Mill said mira- 
cles were introduced later than the biography of 
Jesus. The author of Ecce Homo, on the contrary, 
Professor Seeley, asserts that if we deny the record 
of miracles, we must deny knowledge of Jesus. Kenan 
said that Jesus lowered his moral standard under the 
pressure of his environment in order to make his 
cause succeed. Others unable to grant moral de- 
linquency think Jesus was insane or under a delusion 
as to some of his claims. 10 Many opponents think the 
supernatural claims of Jesus the accretions of later 
years. J. S. Mill denied that Jesus ever claimed 
to be divine, while one objector unable to admit that 
such a teacher was insane and unable to discover other 
grounds for the charge asserts that Christ was im- 
moral because he permitted himself to receive divine 
honors. 11 Thus the theories contradict each other. 

(5) The reason is that no one of them adequately ac- 
counts for all the facts involved. The hypothesis 
we have adopted does account for those facts without 
exception and reduces all to harmony and order. 

137. Now, so general is the consensus of opinion 
as to the sinlessness of Jesus, even among unbelievers, 
and so feebly is the charge of moral delinquency sus- 
tained when it is made, that this point may be con- 
sidered as virtually conceded on all hands. If, then, 
Jesus was sinless we stand in the presence of a moral 



MORAL CARRIES OTHER CLAIMS 135 

miracle. This moral miracle forms an easy passage 
to those of a physical kind, especially as all the latter 
themselves bear the moral stamp. The divine claims 
likewise cannot be detached from the moral ; they are 
indeed an organic part of the moral manifestation of 
Christ. Discerning students see that the whole Chris- 
tian claim is bound up with the moral character of 
Christ. If this is sustained, the entire fabric stands ; 
if it goes, the whole falls in ruins. 12 Sidney Lanier 
does not exaggerate the convictions of Christ's follow- 
ers, nor the destined goal of the thinking of men in 
general, when he thus writes : 

''But thee, but thee, O sovereign seer of time, 
But thee, poet's Poet, wisdom's tongue, 
But thee, man's best Man, O love's best Love, 
O perfect life in perfect labour writ, 
O all men's Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest, — 
What if or yet, what mole, what flaw, what lapse, 
What least defect or shadow of defect, 
What rumour tattled by an enemy, 
Of inference loose, what lack of grace 
Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's or death's, — 
O, what amiss may I forgive in thee, 
Jesus, good Paragon, thou Crystal Christ." 



CHAPTER X. 

CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR: 
PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 

138. There are many who imagine that the des- 
tiny of Christianity is bound up with the final results 
of the science of criticism as applied to the books 
of the Bible. As a matter of fact the process of 
criticism, important and valuable as it is, is but an 
incident in the history of the religion of Christ. The 
reason for the statement is that a resistless force in 
operation in the world to-day cannot be brought to a 
standstill by the view men may come to hold as to 
the literaiy record of its origin in the past. Yet this 
is assumed by many. If the opinion should be gen- 
erally adopted that Newton's account of gravitation 
is erroneous in many respects it would not affect 
the operation of the force of gravitation in nature. 
The facts of astronomy are not dependent on critical 
theories about gravitation. So the facts of the Chris- 
tian religion are not dependent on critical theories as 
to origin. 

139. We may consider Christ in either of two 
ways : The first way is to regard him as the subject 
of four brief literary memoirs written about two 
thousand years ago. These writings are imperish- 

136 



CHRIST'S CREATIVE WORK 137 

able. Their survival to the present and their hold 
upon mankind show this, no matter what critical 
views may arise concerning them in the course of the 
ages. Yet there are countless numbers of people who 
would not surrender their faith in Christ, no mat- 
ter what conclusions critics might reach as to early 
documents. They have independent and direct ex- 
perience of him. They are, as has been said, like the 
Samaritans who believed first because of the woman's 
word, but afterwards because they saw and knew 
Jesus for themselves. The other way of considering 
Christ is to view him as a spiritual Creator. We may 
ask not what did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John 
say about him, but what has he accomplished in the 
world ? One thing he is accomplishing to-day in the 
hearts and lives of his followers is the impartation of 
inward peace and rest, and strength for life's bur- 
dens and duties. On the theater of the world's life 
he is slowly transforming all our western civilization, 
and already the advance guard of his spiritual army 
occupies the frontiers of his Kingdom in the orient. 
These facts will be presented in some detail in later 
chapters. At present we note it in passing, that we 
may keep it in mind as we return to consider his early 
work as spiritual Creator. 

140. Look again, then, at the first three Gospels. 
Whence came they ? They may be properly regarded 
as the creation of Christ himself through his follow- 
ers. If the Christian explanation of him is the true 
one, his incarnation meant more than the eternal 



138 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR 

Word dwelling in the man Jesus. It meant the mas- 
tery of the inner life of other men by his truth and 
ideals, through whom these should be propagated. It 
meant an unbroken succession of such men through 
time. This and nothing less would permanently in- 
troduce him to the race of men, and incarnate him in 
humanity in an effective saving way. This is the 
deep significance of his notable saying to Peter after 
the great confession : "Thou art Peter and upon this 
rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hades 
shall not prevail against it" (Matt. xvi. 18). Through 
the operation of the divine Spirit the revelation of 
the Messiah had now become the discovery of the 
disciple. The grasp by Peter and others of the mean- 
ing of the Christ was the foundation of the spiritual 
Kingdom. The Messianic truth was incarnated in a 
living man. This, indeed, was part and parcel of the 
purpose of the Incarnation. Incarnation came short 
of its end so long as it came short of this. 

Now, as already pointed out, the Gospels are best 
explained on the above theory. Christ's character 
and his revelation and his ideals were discovered by 
his disciples, particularly the little group which were 
near him, known as "the twelve," and who, with one 
exception, afterwards became the Apostles. In due 
time these men or others in close intimacy with them 
produced the gospel records. These records are a 
monument to the prophetic power of Jesus. They 
mark his mastery as a teacher of men. He not only 
announced a message, but he also "caused men to 



PHE-EMINENCE AS TEACHER 139 

know" that message, which is the final test of a 
teacher's work. 

141. Let us see now how nearly unbelievers come 
to granting our contention at this point. Recall, for 
a moment, some of the quotations of the last chapter. 
Let us remember also that it is universally conceded 
that Jesus wrote no book. Not a line from his pen 
exists on earth to-day. The author of Supernatural 
Religion said "Jesus carried morality to the sub- 
limest point attainable by humanity;" Kenan said 
men would no longer "distinguish between him and 
God;" Mill said, "Whatever else criticism may take 
away, Christ is left ;" Strauss, that "He is the high- 
est object we can imagine with respect to religion;" 
Matthew Arnold, that no other way "but the way 
of Jesus does bring men to righteousness." 

Now, it is clear from these and many similar decla- 
rations of unbelievers that they believed Christ and 
his teachings were discoverable through the writings, 
not of Christ, but of others. In other words they 
concede the crown of prophetic preeminence to Jesus 
in two respects : First, as to the superlative excellence 
of his teachings, and, second, as to the accuracy with 
which he impressed his own "frame of mind" upon 
others. The assumption of these men is that Jesus 
did succeed in conveying his thought to men. The 
burden of proof is upon them to show why in moral 
teachings his success was so marked, while as to 
miracles and the doctrine of his Person he failed so 
completely. For they arbitrarily deny their trust- 



140 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR! 

worthiness as narrators of these other things, while 
defending it as to moral teachings. With one hand 
they grant to Jesus by their concessions the supreme 
crown as teacher, and then take it away with the 
other, by their denials. Truly, we must conclude 
that, with all his moral beauty and excellence, Jesus 
was a pitiable failure as teacher even, if he did not 
succeed in guarding his message against corruptions 
which have led to his own exaltation as God, and to 
the existence through eighteen centuries of a system 
of idolatry of which he is the center. No; Jesus is 
the creator of the Gospels. They are his handiwork. 
142. It is not proposed, however, to let the above 
conclusion stand by itself. We can show Christ's 
title to the office of Spiritual Creator in another 
way. We can go behind the Gospels. This will now 
be done. We are to consider not merely literature 
which Christ has through his followers created, but 
also results in the life of humanity. The synoptic 
Gospels, it is agreed by competent scholars, were writ- 
ten about the years 60 to 70 of our era. The epistles 
to the Romans, First and Second Corinthians and 
Galatians, are almost universally conceded by de- 
structive and rationalistic critics even to have been 
written a number of years earlier. The character and 
career of the Apostle Paul and the results he achieved 
appear clearly in these epistles. In them what do we 
find? We shall find that Jesus Christ as a spiritual 
force in the world had begun to operate and produce 
results long before the records of his life were 



ACTION PRIOR TO WRITTEN GOSPELS 141 

penned. We shall find also that there is a striking 
agreement between this earlier Christianity and that 
which we find in the later records of the Gospels. 
The aim of the present chapter should be clearly 
grasped : The epistles of Paul named above are con- 
ceded to be the oldest historical documents relating 
to Christianity which we possess. They were written 
by the man named Paul at the time they themselves 
indicate that they were written, say before the year 
60 of our era. It is now to be shown that in a multi- 
tude of respects these writings exhibit the same 
Christianity with that found in Matthew, Mark and 
Luke. Then it will be shown that Christianity in 
these epistles appears not merely as a record but as 
a transforming force in the world. So extensive a 
plan within the limits of a chapter must, in the na- 
ture of the case, be developed only in outline. In some 
instances references by chapter and verse will not be 
given, especially where these are most abundant and 
conclusive. But the reader can easily verify for him- 
self. 

143. Consider first Paul's personal relations to 
Christ. He claims repeatedly to be an Apostle. He 
was separated from his mother's womb unto this 
work. He was directly appointed by Christ and was 
independent of other apostles. The qualifications of 
an apostle, personal vision of Christ, and the signs 
of an apostle, miraculous works, were his (Rom. 
i. 1; Gal. i. 11, 12; 1 Cor. ix. 1; Rom. xv. 19; 2 
Cor. xii. 12, compared with Luke ix. 1 ff. ; Mark xvi. 



142 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR 

15-18). Thus Paul's office and form of activity con- 
formed to the plan of Jesus as set forth in the Gos- 
pels. 

144. The doctrinal agreement of Paul with the 
synoptic Gospels is clear at many points. The doc- 
trine of the Fatherhood of God was a fundamental 
teaching of Jesus. Harnack and others have made 
it almost the exclusive and exhaustive message of 
Jesus. Professor G. G. Findlay says without exag- 
geration concerning the Fatherhood in Paul: "This 
principle is its tacit presupposition and basis through- 
out. A true disciple, Paul has assimilated in this 
fundamental article the essential teachings of our 
Lord." 1 

Paul and Jesus are in complete agreement on the 
doctrine of Love also, which grows out of the doctrine 
of Fatherhood. "But I say unto you love your ene- 
mies and pray for them that persecute you/' So 
spoke Jesus. Paul says : "In Christ there is neither 
Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female." 
Says Professor Sanday: "This universalism (as to 
Love) which underlies all the teaching of Jesus is 
put in a definite practical form by Paul" in the lan- 
guage just quoted. 2 

Again, the doctrines of repentance and faith are 
conspicuous in the teachings of both Jesus and Paul. 
Especially does Paul insist upon faith as the con- 
dition of justification throughout his controversy with 
the Judaizers. "Kepent ye and believe the Gospel" 
was the early and constant message of Jesus. 



KINGDOM AND CHUECH 143 

145. "The Kingdom of God" was a leading teach- 
ing with Jesus, as we have seen. Eepentance and 
faith were conditions of entering the Kingdom. It 
was a spiritual Kingdom. The poor in spirit were 
blessed because theirs was the Kingdom of Heaven. 
So in Paul : "The Kingdom of God is not eating and 
drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the 
Holy Ghost" (Rom. xiv. 17). The Kingdom does not 
have the same relative prominence in Paul, but its 
various marks, or at least the greater part of them, 
reappear (see 1 Cor. xv. 24 i; 1 Cor. vi. 2; Rom. 
xiv. 17). 

Another doctrine of Jesus attains great prominence 
in the writings of Paul, the doctrine of the Church. 
Jesus predicted (Matt. xvi. 18) that the gates of 
hades should not prevail against his church. In Paul 
the church becomes the organ for the continued mani- 
festation of Christ on earth, and his apostolic career 
was devoted to the preaching of the Gospel and the 
establishment of churches (see salutations in Epis- 
tles, and 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; xii. 11-28; 2 Cor. iii. 3, 
any many other passages). 

So, also, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in Paul 
corresponds with the synoptic predictions of Jesus 
on the gift of the Spirit. Turn to any portion of 
Paul's epistles and his doctrine of the Spirit appears. 
Compare with Luke xi. 13. 

146. If the reader will turn to the twelfth, thir- 
teenth and fourteenth chapters of Romans and com- 
pare these with the Sermon on the Mount, he will be 



144 CHEIST AS SPIEITUAL CREATOR 

struck with the resemblances. Compare especially 
Rom. xii. 14, "Bless them that persecute you, bless 
and curse not," with Matt. v. 44, "Love your enemies 
and pray for those who persecute you." Compare 
Rom. xiii. 7, with Matt. xxii. 21; and Rom. xiii. 9, 
with Matt. xxii. 39, 40. Dr. Sanday says regarding 
the passage under consideration in Romans, after ex- 
hibiting the verbal agreement of the three parallel 
passages cited: "To these verbal resemblances must 
be added remarkable identity of teaching in these suc- 
cessive chapters. Everything that is said about re- 
venge or about injuring others is exactly identical 
with the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount." Pro- 
fessor Sanday goes on to quote with approval the fol- 
lowing from Knowling: "Indeed, it is not too much 
to add that the Apostle's description of the Kingdom 
of God reads like a brief summary of its description 
in the same Sermon on the Mount." 3 For references 
by Paul to the words of Jesus, compare 1 Cor. vii. 10, 
with Mark x. 9 ; and 1 Cor. ix. 14, with Luke x. 7. 

147. Again, Paul reproduces with substantial ac- 
curacy the teachings of Jesus as to the Lord's Supper. 
In 1 Cor. xi. 23 f., we read : "For I received of the 
Lord that which I also delivered unto you, how that 
the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed 
took bread; and when he had given thanks he broke 
it, and said, this is my body, which is for you : this do 
in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup," 
etc. Compare these words of Paul with those of Jesus 
in the corresponding passages in the Gospels (Matt. 



PAUL'S CAREER AND CHRIST'S PLAN 145 

xxvi. 27; Mark xiv. 23; Luke xii. 17, 20), and ob- 
serve how directly the thought of Paul reproduces 
that of his Master. 

Then, too, as to the saving significance of his 
death Jesus foreshadows most clearly the doctrine of 
forgiveness and justification so fully elaborated in 
Romans and Galatians. Compare especially the fol- 
lowing : Matt. xx. 28 ; Mark x. 45. 

It is well known that Paul's great chapter, the fif- 
teenth of 1 Corinthians, is one of the strongest 
proofs of the resurrection of Jesus. 

148. We are next to consider Paul's conception of 
his own career in relation to the plan of Jesus for 
the future of his Kingdom. In the following passages 
Jesus forecasts the future. It is to be coextensive with 
the race. Expansion is to be the watchword of its 
history. Now the call and mission of Paul as the 
apostle to the Gentiles, and the universalism of his 
theology, clearly connect him with the purpose of 
Jesus towards the human race (see Matt, xxviii. 19; 
Mark xvi. 15; compare with Gal. i.). The Gospels 
leave us to expect a movement out from Jerusalem 
and Judea to the ends of the earth. A leader is 
needed to grasp the spirit and aims of the Master. 
Paul exactly meets the expectation. On this point 
even the critics of the well-known Tubingen school 
are agreed. Paul and Jesus alike thought of their 
Gospel as destined for mankind. In Paul it would 
seem as if the spiritual energy of Jesus was .trans- 



146 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR 

mitted. It was a case of persistence of force in the 
spiritual realm. 

149. Of very great importance is the next point of 
agreement between Paul and the Gospels. Paul's doc- 
trine of the Person of Christ recognized clearly his 
sinlessness (Kom. vii. 7, 8; viii. 3; 2 Cor. v. 21). 
"Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our be- 
half ; that we might become the righteousness of God 
in him" (2 Cor. v. 21). Little in Paul's writings 
reflects the events of the ministry of Christ on earth. 
Yet the facts of Christ's life are evidently assumed by 
Paul. They are the necessary background of all his 
teachings concerning Christ. What are those teach- 
ings on the crucial point, Christ's supernatural claims 
as to his Person and work ? Do they agree with Mat- 
thew, Mark and Luke ? On this point there can be no 
question. Begin with a most striking statement in 
Eomans ix. 5, where referring to the Jews and their 
privileges Paul says: "Whose are the fathers, and 
of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over 
all God blessed forever." The margin suggests a pos- 
sible alternative reading, and the passage has been 
much discussed, but Professor Sanday, one of the 
sanest and ablest of modern interpreters, says on this 
passage: "This description of the supreme dignity 
of him who was on his human side of Jewish stock, 
serves to intensify the conception of the privileged 
character of the Jewish race." 4 There are other 
equally explicit passages. In 1 Cor. v. 5, 6, we read : 
"For though there be that are called Gods whether in 



PEESON OF CHRIST 147 

heaven or on earth ; as there are gods many and lords 
many ; yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom 
are all things, and we unto him ; and one Lord, Jesus 
Christ, through whom are all things, and we through 
him." Again in 2 Cor. viii. 9, Paul refers to the 
riches of Christ and his becoming poor that we might 
become rich, evidently pointing to his pre-existent 
state and agreeing with the great passages as to the 
pre-existence and self -emptying of Christ in Philip- 
pians and Colossians. He is referred to as King who 
must reign till all enemies are subjected unto him (1 
Cor. xv. 25). No one can say Jesus is Lord but by 
the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. xii. 3). Christ is the image 
of God (2 Cor. iv. 4), whom Paul preaches as Lord. 
The human and the divine in Christ are closely asso- 
ciated. He was born of the seed of David after the 
flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power 
by the resurrection of the dead (Rom. i. 3, 4). Faith 
in Christ justifies. Christ is the new Adam, the head 
of the race. The future destinies of mankind are in 
his hands. The whole creation groaneth and travail- 
eth in pain waiting for the redemption that is in 
Christ. Christ is to be final judge: "We must all 
be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; 
that each one may receive the things done in the body" 
(2 Cor. v. 10, compare Matt. xxv. 31 ff.). The strik- 
ing and convincing fact appears in Paul's undisputed 
epistles that the doctrine of Christ's Person was no- 
where in dispute. Judaizers did not raise this ques- 
tion, nor did others when these epistles were written. 



148 CHRIST AS SPIEITUAL CREATOR 

150. Most suggestive is Paul's personal experience 
of Christ. The resurrection and the cross are cen- 
tral in his experience and doctrine. "When it pleased 
God to reveal his Son in me" is the way he de- 
scribes his conversion (Gal. i. 16). "I have been 
crucified with Christ; yet I live, and yet no longer 
I but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20) are his words 
which exhaustively set forth his spiritual experience. 
Every thought is brought into captivity to Christ. 
In short, Christ is the center of Paul's spiritual uni- 
verse. His epistles relate every activity and hope of 
Christian men and women to Jesus the Son of God, 
the Saviour, the Lord and Redeemer of mankind. 

151. Consider further the results of Paul's labors : 
Christianity given to the Gentile nations; a line of 
churches established from Antioch through Asia 
Minor and Greece to Rome ; the new spiritual broth- 
erhoods, local democracies, planted throughout the 
Western world in strategic points as the seed plot for 
future civilizations. This fact is of vast significance. 

Another fact should be noted at this point. Many 
modern interpreters of all schools admit that Paul 
taught the pre-existence of Christ. This as a mat- 
ter of pure exegesis. Many of them deny actual pre- 
existence on various grounds. They hold that it was 
ideal pre-existence which was meant, or it refers to 
a heavenly man, or some other explanation is offered. 
The point here is that pre-existence of some kind is 
conceded almost universally to have been taught by 
Paul. 



SUMMARY 149 

152. Now consider the point at which we have ar- 
rived. Every important aspect of our Lord's life 
and teaching, except the Virgin birth, reappears in 
Paul's undisputed epistles. We are in all we say as- 
suming only the historical trustworthiness of the four 
epistles referred to. Theories of inspiration are for 
the purpose in view here left entirely out of account. 
We find, then, that in the earlier Gospels Christ, the 
sinless Son of Man and Son of God, claiming to be 
Lawgiver and Lord, the object of the religious devo- 
tion of mankind, who is to be ever present with his 
disciples, predicts the establishment of a world-wide 
Kingdom through the preaching of his Gospel. In 
Paul we find this prediction beginning to be fulfilled. 
To-day in our own world we find the same movement 
in force slowly changing the face of human society. 
If Christianity had perished from the earth save as 
a tradition we might ignore it. But to-day Christ's 
own words find fulfillment in the irrepressible con- 
flict which rages around his name. Paul's mission 
and career was the initial stage of Christ's creative 
work in the world at large. 

Let it be recalled now that the synoptic Gospels 
were written after the epistles of Paul which we are 
considering, and after his career was virtually if not 
entirely completed. Now in Paul we find a three- 
fold reproduction of the same portrait of Jesus found 
in the Gospels. (1) That image apears in the inner 
experience of Paul as an individual. The inner Christ 
of Paul's spirit walks before us in his recorded ex- 



150 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR 

periences as the same Christ essentially who steps 
forth from the page of the three Gospels in the full- 
dness of life. (2) Chirst's image also appears in the 
teachings of Paul's epistles concerning his person 
and work, and (3) it reappears also in the redeemed 
lives of Corinthian, Galatain and Roman Christians. 
It is, indeed, the higher spiritual Christ, but essen- 
tially the same Christ. 

Can we draw any inference from these facts? 
Surely Paul, who wrote before Matthew, Mark and 
Luke, had some source of information which agreed 
with the sources of the evangelists. Surely, also, the 
mythical theory of the composition of the Gospels can- 
not hold. There was not time for myths to grow. 
Besides, Paul's epistles, by common consent, are no 
myths. Moreover, if Paul's Gospel had contradicted 
the common fund of knowledge about the Lord, he 
would have been contradicted. The controversy with 
Judaizers shows this. The absence of contradiction 
of Paul by other Apostles is strong proof of the cor- 
rectness of his views as to the relation of his Gospel to 
Christ's teachings. 

153. There is one striking difference, however, be- 
tween the manifestation of Christ through Paul in the 
three-fold manner pointed out, and his manifestation 
in the Gospels. Yet even this difference Christ him- 
self foretold. In the synoptics Christ is in the pro- 
phetic mood, so to speak. The shadow of his ap- 
proaching death is upon him. He foretells the 
preaching of remission of sins in his name to the 



CHKIST TEIUMPHANT IN PAUL 151 

ends of the earth after his death. In Paul he has 
become the triumphant Christ. The conclusion of 
the synoptics bends back and dovetails into the be- 
ginning of the Pauline mission. 

Observe, also, that Christ predicted that his in- 
fluence was not to be that of a dead teacher, but of a 
living presence, "I am with you always, even unto the 
end of the world." The remarkable fact appears that 
Christ as a living presence was more real to disciples 
after than before his death and resurrection. Convic- 
tion of this now becomes a conquering power ; before 
it was a wavering and doubtful estimate they placed 
upon him. Paul's spiritual autobiography is an out- 
line portrait of the risen Jesus who was enthroned in 
the apostle's heart, bringing every thought into cap- 
tivity to his will. Professor Harnack says: "The 
Pauline theology, this theology of a converted Phari- 
see, is the strongest proof of the self-complete and uni- 
versal power of the influence of the person of Jesus." 5 

What, then, is our conclusion? It is this: Jesus 
Christ was a spiritual cause actively at work in the 
world rearing his Kingdom before the earliest Gospels 
were written. 

154. If, as with a few recent writers, it be urged 
Christ was a spiritual cause actively at work in the 
Gospel of Mark, for example, was composed to cor- 
roborate Paul ; that we know little of the real Jesus ; 
that Paul obtained his idea as to a pre-existent Christ 
from Alexandrian philosophy — then Paul must be ac- 
counted for. A man with a delusion as to his own 



152 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR 

inner life, ascribing his experience to Another whom 
he worships and exalts, becomes himself the great 
Initiator in religion. The worshipper of a phantom 
on tbia view becomes the transformer of the ages by 
teaching the duty of worshipping a phantom. 

Then, too, this view divides the opposition. Mr. 
Lecky and others said it was Christ, not Paul, who 
transformed the morals of Europe. Christ said it was 
to be himself, according to the Gospels, and Paul de- 
clares with vehemence it was Christ. Millions of men 
to-day echo Paul's vehement assertion and support 
it by their testimony as to Christ's transforming 
power in the experience of their lives. 

155. In the foregoing discussion Paul's later 
epistles and the Gospel according to John have 
not been introduced as evidence. They are most 
conclusive on all the more important points in de- 
bate. But so are the earlier Gospels and the earlier 
group of Paul's epistles. A recent writer well saya: 
"No words in the Fourth Gospel concerning our 
Lord's character and prerogatives are loftier than 
those in the synoptic Gospels. We believe we are 
justified in saying that the synoptists would be more 
difficult to expound without the light of the Fourth 
Evangelist than the Fourth Gospel without the aid 
of the synoptists." 6 One is not obliged to subscribe 
absolutely to this statement as it stands, but it is 
not far from a correct view. The later writings just 
referred to for many reasons the present writer ac- 
cepts as genuine, in full view of critical objections. 



THE FOURTH GOSPEL 153 

In them the doctrine of Christ's Person is stated in 
most explicit terms. In John he is the eternal Logos 
who is also Son, distinct from and yet co-equal with 
the Father. He embodies in himself the Light, Life 
and Love which are of the very essence of the divine 
nature. In Hebrews also, in the first chapter, he 
is set forth as "the effulgence of his (God's) glory, 
and the very image of his substance." In the first 
chapter of Colossians he is before all things and in 
him all things hold together. In the second chapter 
of Philippians he is described as having been in "the 
form of God," and "on an equality with God," as 
having emptied himself and as taking the form of a 
servant. Moreover, in all these passages the doctrine 
is stated in an uncontroversial manner, though evi- 
dently intended to meet heresies in some cases. Prac- 
tical rather than controversial ends are in view. The 
fact of Christ's transcendent nature is quietly as- 
sumed. No proof could be more convincing that it 
was universally accepted by writer and readers. 

156. There is indeed difference between the repre- 
sentations of the synoptic gospels as to Christ's Per- 
son and these writings of Paul, John and others. But 
the difference lies in the various modes of apprehend- 
ing the same truth. There is also an underlying 
unity. The doctrine of Christ's Person may be 
likened to a sphere. One pole, the human, appears 
in the synoptic Gospels, where, as man, Christ is 
identified with the race. The other and divine pole 
is in the Fourth Gospel, pointing upward to the 



154 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR 

depths of the eternal nature of God himself. The 
Pauline teachings are as lines of longitude connect- 
ing the poles, or parallels of latitude encircling the 
sphere. But everywhere on the sphere, whether at 
the poles or at points on the encircling lines, the 
curve is the same. Attempts to empty the synoptic 
sayings of their divine content of meaning have ever 
failed. They spring back through sheer inherent 
force into the curve of divine significance. 

Let us now gather up our discussion and bring 
it to its conclusion. We began with the statement 
that the only adequate explanation of certain early 
facts of Christianity is to be found in the view that 
Christ as a living presence became a spiritual Creator 
in the life of individuals and societies. We saw 
that as such he wrought a mighty work in and 
through the apostle Paul. We saw that this oc- 
curred before the Gospels were written, and thus we 
reached an independent basis for the Christian posi- 
tion not so much in the teaching of Christ as in his 
action. It was the action of Christ which energized 
in Paul and in his writings, and which converted 
a narrow Pharisee from being intellectually and 
spiritually a citizen of Judea into a citizen of the 
planet, itself a work more than human. It was 
Christ's action as spiritual Creator which inaugurated 
the first missionary enterprise. If Mr. Lecky is right 
in crediting Christ with transforming European 
morals, it was through a converted Pharisee with 
matchless daring in whom Christ crossed the Helle- 



CHRISTIAN CONTINUITIES 155 

spont and laid his creative hand on Western civiliza- 
tion. Again it was Christ in action who created our 
earlier Gospels. The necessity for them grew out 
of the resistless might with which he was already 
re-creating men in his own image. The passion for 
him as an ethical and historic ideal was born of his 
regenerating presence in the inner life of men. The 
lines of his image on the treacherous page of memory 
would have grown dim forever but for this energy 
within. Stimulated by that energy the likeness be- 
came vivid again and reappears on the pages of the 
Gospels in undying beauty and lifelikeness, and in 
matchless unity and originality. 

157. Finally we do not judge of the early cre- 
ative work of Christ as distinct from his work in 
after years. All the problems about Jesus stretch 
through the centuries. Two thousand years of time 
bind all the diverse elements of these problems into 
unities which to-day dauntlessly challenge solution 
save in the Christian way. For Christ is yet at work. 
The early energy is unspent. Four lines of con- 
tinuity may here be indicated in proof of the state- 
ment. (1) The first is the continuity of experience. 
The Christian type of experience is as real and dis- 
tinctive to-day as when Paul wrote Romans and 
Corinthians. The same Christ, the same Spirit, the 
same kind of transformed lives are in evidence all 
about us. (2) The second continuity is of ideas. Ex- 
perience begets thought. Christ's Person must be 
construed by men who abandon all for him, who live 



156 CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR 

for him and die unto him. The Pauline and Johan- 
nine and evangelical modes of regarding his person 
reappear in scores of creeds and symbols to-day. So 
with the continuity of other distinctive ideas. (3) The 
third continuity is of witnesses. Experience and 
ideas master men. They become witnesses in the 
deep New Testament sense. In Madagascar, in China 
during the Boxer uprising, the poor, the meek, the 
peacemakers, the pure in heart in our own times 
still go to the stake for him and, dying, sing : 

"Nor tongue can speak, nor heart can frame, 
Nor can the memory find 
A sweeter sound than Jesus' namej 
Saviour of mankind. ' ' 

(4.) The fourth continuity is that of spiritual 
community. The gates of hades have not prevailed 
against his church. There have always been men 
and women with his love ruling their lives. A com- 
mon experience, a common view of his person, a 
mystic inner bond and deathless hope have drawn 
them into fellowship in work and worship. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CHRIST AS PRACTICAL IDEALIST: ETHICS AND 
RELIGION. 

158. We are to consider next the work of Christ 
in the sphere of ethics and religion. The two are 
inseparable in his teachings. When dealing with the 
ethics of Christianity it is very gratifying to find one 
point of common standing ground for unbelievers 
and believers. It is conceded that the ethics of Jesus 
are the highest yet given to the world. Few will 
now dispute this. On this very account, as it ap- 
pears to the writer, the usual method of stating the 
argument from Christ's ethics for the truth of Chris- 
tianity is defective. To set forth the ideal excellence 
of the moral teachings of Jesus as a means of proving 
their divine origin scarcely meets adequately the situ- 
ation. It is quite interesting but equally inconclusive 
to compare Christian ethics with other systems, as 
Confucianism, Greek or Roman ethics. The reason 
is, as above stated, that Christian ethics, it is gen- 
erally acknowledged, are the highest. But this con- 
clusion by no means implies on the part of unbe- 
lievers that the ethical teachings are of divine origin 
in the Christian sense. It may be held that Chris- 
tian ethics are simply the highest yet evolved. 

157 



158 CHEIST AS PRACTICAL IDEALIST 

It is not intended in the above paragraph to assert 
that the argument from the ideal excellence of Chris- 
tian ethics is without force. Far from it. From the 
Christian standpoint this alone, without the aid of 
other arguments, ought to carry conviction to men. 
Indeed, the assertion has been made that the argu- 
ment from ethics is the most direct and fundamental 
proof of Christianity. But, for the reason already 
pointed out, this view cannot be maintained. That 
is, it cannot be maintained if we use the ethical teach- 
ings of Christ merely as an argument. If we make 
them comprehensive enough to include faith in 
Christ, and if we regard them as an evangel, a Gos- 
pel and an appeal to the moral and spiritual nature of 
man, which secures a moral response, herein indeed 
do we find one of the most direct and fundamental 
proofs, but not otherwise. This, however, is not the 
argument from ethics in the ordinary sense as em- 
ployed by the Christian apologist. 

The plan of the present chapter, then, will be to 
set forth first, in as concise a manner as possible, 
the superiority of the Christian ethical ideals, that 
they may leave their appropriate impression upon the 
mind. Thus the way will be prepared for the further 
argument which it is hoped may prove more nearly 
adequate. 

159. Professor Stewart, in indicating the moral 
tests of a religion, says we will properly ask: (a) 
Whether it understands the moral condition to be 
dealt with; (b) whether it is formed on a right 



TESTS OF ETHICAL TEACHING 159 

method, being based on a clearly apprehended princi- 
ple and constituting an organized whole; (c) whether 
its precepts are the highest possible; (d) whether 
its morality is applicable to all mankind; (e) whether 
its standard is the highest as to individual virtues and 
in their combination; (f) whether it is provided 
with sanctions or motives sufficient to ensure atten- 
tion to its precepts. 1 In all these respects he finds 
that Christianity abundantly meets the tests. 

The following points may be successfully main- 
tained in regard to the ethical and religious teach- 
ings of Christianity: 

They are the highest yet made known to the world. 
Professor Fisher has an extended and instructive 
comparison between Christian ethics and the philo- 
sophic ethics of the Greeks and Romans. 2 At certain 
points the teachings of Seneca approximate those of 
Jesus. But in motive and in fundamental quality 
they fall far below. The highest morality of the 
Greeks never attained to the idea of equality and 
brotherhood among men. Romanes quotes J. S. 
Mill's saying that an unbeliever even cannot "find a 
better translation of the rule of virtue from the 
abstract into the concrete than to endeavor so to live 
that Christ would approve our life," and then adds, 
"Contrast Jesus Christ in this respect with other 
thinkers of like antiquity. Even Plato is nowhere 
in this respect (as to spirituality) as compared with 
Christ. Read the dialogues and see how enormous 
is the contrast with the Gospels in respect of errors 



160 CHRIST AS PRACTICAL IDEALIST 

of all kinds — reaching even to absurdity in respect 
to the reason and to sayings shocking to the moral 
sense. Yet this is confessedly the highest level of 
human reason on the lines of spirituality." 3 

It is but another aspect of the above point to say 
that Christian ethics are by far the most radical. Sin 
is traced directly back to the inner motive and 
thought. The Sermon on the Mount has often been 
pronounced visionary and impracticable by reason of 
its direct opposition to the natural impulses of the 
human heart. 

Again Christian ethics are in a very profound sense 
characterized by internal unity and harmony. The 
Christian elements of character combine into a moral 
type which is as distinctive as anything in the world. 
It is indeed endlessly varied in individuals, but the 
essential Christian traits may be clearly recognized 
in all cases where it attains even an approximate ma- 
turity. Some of these are: (a) The passion for 
righteousness; (b) the love and service of others at 
personal cost; (c) devotion to the person of Christ. 

160. Again the moral and religious teachings of 
Christianity are effective in their appeal to men. As 
this point comes up further on it is merely mentioned 
now. Closely related to it, however, is the further 
statement that these teachings are of permanent va- 
lidity. Romanes was much impressed by this aspect 
of Christian ethics. He says : "One of the strongest 
pieces of objective evidence for Christianity is not 
sufficiently enforced by apologists. It is the absence 



ETHICAL UNIVERSALS 1GI 

from the biography of Christ of any doctrines which 
the subsequent growth of human knowledge — whether 
in natural science, ethics, political economy, or else- 
where — has had to discount. This negative argument 
is really almost as strong as the positive one from 
what Christ did teach. For when we consider what 
a large number of sayings are recorded of him, it 
becomes most remarkable that in literal truth there 
is no reason why any of his words should ever pass 
away in the sense of becoming obsolete." 4 

161. We must note also the universality of Christ's 
teachings. It is a marvel that Jesus avoided casting 
his teaching into temporary moulds; that they are so 
comprehensive as to apply in every sphere and rela- 
tion in life; that they are not rules but principles, 
flexible and expansive, so that the growth of society 
never finds them unequal to its needs. It is still 
further marvel that he advanced no political teach- 
ings and yet has slowly transformed political ideals 
until to-day a world's peace and a universal brother- 
hood are at least subjects of vital interest in the 
thought of mankind. The Jews of Christ's day 
wanted political teaching, and Mohammedanism is 
breaking in pieces on the rock of its own political 
ideals. Christ rose above his environment and fore- 
saw the danger. 

It must be kept in mind also that Christ combined 
religion and ethics as they had never been combined 
before. He thus brought the highest possible sanc- 
tions to the man struggling to realize the ethical 



1C2 CHBIST AS PRACTICAL IDEALIST 

ideal. His doctrine of God is the highest conceivable 
by the mind of man. 

162. Passing now to our chief consideration we 
may ask : How shall we best regard the ethical teach- 
ings of Jesus as an evidence of Christianity? The 
answer is that we should view them in relation to 
his Person and to his purpose as a whole. The main 
point may be stated thus : Jesus came not to teach 
a system of ethics but to inaugurate an ethical en- 
terprise. This distinction properly observed will 
clarify several confusing and difficult phases of the 
subject, as will be seen presently. But, first, what 
was the ethical enterprise of Jesus? 

The reply to this question may be stated in various 
ways. Christ's enterprise was to introduce into the 
world an ethical force which should actually trans- 
form men. It was this more than it was a teaching 
addressed to men. These men were to form a so- 
ciety; this society was to grow through the ages; its 
end was moral character in the highest possible 
form. In brief, then, there was an ultimate ethical 
aim or final came before the mind of Jesus. He 
introduced an efficient cause to secure the end. "What 
then was this final and what the efficient cause ? The 
final cause in the individual character was the recre- 
ation of man ethically in Christ's image. The final 
cause in the world at large was the Kingdom of God. 
The efficient cause of both was Jesus himself. 

163. But this ethical enterprise of Jesus was more 
than ethical. First of all it was redemptive. Sin 



CHEIST'S ENTEKPRISE KEDEMPTIVB 163 

must be dealt with before an ethical transformation 
could begin. Man must have a new heart. The 
fundamental relation of the soul to God must be first 
dealt with. Here it is that the ethical runs back 
into the religious life of man. Now it was in a 
personal relation to Christ himself that both the 
religious and ethical result were to be realized. A 
few citations of Scripture only out of many will be 
given. "Whosoever would save his life shall lose it: 
and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall 
find it" (Matt. xvi. 25). In the same context- 
Christ predicts his second coming in glory when he 
shall render to every man according to his deeds. In 
the epistles we find that the experience of New Testa- 
ment writers and readers is cast in the same mould. 
"We have fellowship with one another and the blood 
of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin" ( 1 John 
i. 7). "If that which ye heard from the beginning 
abide in you ye also shall abide in the Son and in the 
Father" (1 John ii. 24). So in many passages 
the hope of seeing Christ leads to self-purification. 
Faith in Christ secures victory over the world. An 
indefinite number of like passages could be cited 
from Peter and Paul. In Paul's writings servants 
are to obey their masters, and children are to obey 
their parents, "in the Lord." Husbands are to love 
their wives as Christ loved the church. In short, 
Christ himself is so organically connected with the 
entire New Testament ethical and religious ideal 
that that ideal is destroyed by any attempt to view 



184 CHRIST AS PRACTICAL IDEALIST 

it apart from him. It ceases to exist save as it exists 
in him, and in him not merely as a historic character • 
who lived and died but as a living force in the heart 
and life. 

164. Such was the ethical enterprise of Jesus. 
Consider now the difficulties in his way. Ideals are 
not wanting among the reformers of the ages. The 
peculiar point about the highest of them in the 
ethical realm is that they remained ideals. Seneca 
could dream even of the Fatherhood of God. But 
he never penetrated into the secret of making men 
God's children. The idealist was not a practical man. 
The chief difficulties of Jesus may be summed up 
in two. The first was in man : How to win man to a 
moral life and leave him free. I speak with rever- 
ence : this is, so far as we can see, the great problem 
of God. This is his burden. Divine power is not 
equal to this task. For mere power cannot change 
moral character. Power in some way must become 
persuasion. Free choice must respond. How did 
Jesus propose to reach the will? The second diffi- 
culty was in the world. How could he establish a 
spiritual empire which should transform the world 
ethically without becoming entangled in earthly em- 
pires ? How shall he isolate his kingdom unto him- 
self and pour redeeming forces into men's lives ? 

165. The above were in part the difficulties. How 
did Jesus propose to meet them? Herein appears 
his wisdom and skill, his unmatched sympathy and 
insight. The first and foremost of the spiritual 



EEPENTANCE THE MEANS 165 

means employed by Jesus was a despised virtue 
among the nations. I refer to repentance. Along 
with it faith was a primary condition of entrance 
into the Kingdom. What infinite tenderness and 
pity are suggested by the first word of the Gospel 
message, repentance. Professor James asks: "In 
what did the emancipating message of primitive 
Christianity consist but in the announcement that 
God recognizes those weak and tender impulses which 
paganism had so rudely overlooked? Take repent- 
ance: the man who can do nothing rightly can at 
least repent of his failures." 5 The same writer 
goes on to say that Christianity took this repentance 
and made it the one power within us which "ap- 
pealed straight to the heart of God." 

Christ's cause was outcast in the early centuries. 
So the outcast cause seizes upon the outcast virtue 
and appeals to social outcasts who could do nothing 
but repent and believe. On this foundation Christ 
reared a Kingdom which to-day is becoming world- 
wide. "Not many wise, not many mighty" were 
called, though there were some from the beginning. 
God chose the foolish and base and despised things 
to confound the mighty. So Paul wrote to the 
Corinthians. Thus with an outcast cause Jesus ap- 
proached the world at the best possible point of con- 
tact for its moral transformation. 

166. Another chief means employed by Jesus was 
his church. The gates of hades could not prevail 
against it he predicted. The church was the society 



166 CHEIST AS PEACTICAL IDEALIST 

of repentant and redeemed men, held together by 
spiritual interests only. Christ himself was its cen- 
ter and bond. "Where two or three are gathered 
together in my name there am I in the midst of 
them" (Matt, xviii. 20). Thus his people were 
to be preserved from the world's contamination. The 
church became the organ for the advancement of the 
kingdom. Its functions are spiritual only. They 
greatly err who seek to make it the means of con- 
veying directly all kinds of secular benefits to the 
world. This is to weaken it in its distinctive work 
and mission, which is to call men to repentance and 
faith and to sanctify them in character and con- 
duct. Yet it leavens all society in every sphere. The 
modern doctrine of separation of church and state 
is the belated return of the world to Christ's ideal, 
after fifteen centuries of forgetfulness. 

167. Christ reached the wills of men through two 
agencies, preaching and the Holy Spirit. Paul said, 
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord we per- 
suade men." Persuasion through the message of 
the witness and preacher indicates Christ's method 
with the free wills of men. The doctrine of grace 
means divine power exerted through the Holy Spirit 
not to compel action but to induce it by free choice. 

Through the above agencies Christ planned to 
subdue the world unto himself. An ethical kingdom 
was to arise and sweeten all life. His ideals were 
to pervade all society. Such was his ethical enter- 
prise. No conception at once so simple, so bold, so 



CONFIRMATOEY VIEWS 167 

original and so sublime ever entered into the mind 
of man before or since. HJe has been executing 
his purpose until to-day. He was not an idealist 
merely. He was a practical worker. He has gone 
slowly because men are slow of heart. But he has 
gone surely. As Professor Bruce remarks: "In 
vain does a railway engine start off at lightning 
speed, and reach its destination in an incredibly 
6hort time if it leave the train behind. . . . The law 
of love dictates a slackened pace. Take the train 
along with you." 6 With what infinite patience has 
Jesus, the leader of men, drawn after him the slow- 
going race for two thousand years. 

That the above is a correct interpretation of the 
ethical plan of Jesus is confirmed by the following 
consideration : 

168. (a) It explains the use he makes of exist- 
ing moral teachings. We are not concerned to prove 
his originality in this respect. Sabatier credits him 
with no original teaching, not even the doctrine of 
the Fatherhood of God. 7 Harnack thinks that the 
Fatherhood of God, the kingdom and the higher 
righteousness comprise his essential teachings. 8 These 
writers do not appear to have correctly stated the 
case. They fall far below it. 

Professor Harnack's account is scarcely complete. 
God's Fatherhood is the religious kernel lying at the 
heart of Christ's teachings; the higher righteousness 
is the result in individual character of the spiritual 
forces at work, and the kingdom of God the result 



168 CHEIST AS PEACTICAL IDEALIST 

in history. But the underlying principle for the 
realization of all three is the unique and original 
teaching of Christ: dying in order to live. This is 
the unifying ethical bond of Christ's "system" or 
teaching. It has been well said, as the science of 
chemistry is organized around the idea of affinity, 
and political economy around that of value, and 
astronomy around that of gravitation, so Christian 
ethics and the Christian religion are the working out 
of this principle in relation to God and man. The 
cross is the historic expression of it, and Christ is its 
embodiment. He introduced it into the world and 
keeps it alive among men. 

But pass this by for the moment. Christ utilized 
what ethical truth he found and combined it into a 
new and glorious unity with his own. As practical 
idealist he made it effective for the first time. No- 
where does the golden rule exist in a form so ex- 
haustive and positive as he states it, and he first 
made it a living force in the world. 

(b) Again, our view explains the apparent one- 
sidedness of his ethical teachings. As practical ideal- 
ist he sought to strengthen humanity on its weak 
side. Mr. J. S. Mill complains that the heroic and 
political virtues are wanting in Christ's teaching. 
But this in an error. The heroic and political virtues 
are implicit in those teachings at many points. No 
one ever taught so high a form of courage, both 
physical and moral, as did Jesus; and his doctrine 



CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 169 

of universal love involves patriotism of the purest 
type. 

(c) Again, our view explains the absence of system 
in Christ's ethical teachings. The elements of a 
system are there. But his interest was not logical, 
but practical and spiritual. The unity he sought 
was that of a spiritual society, not of logical coher- 
ence. 

169. Our argument then is this: In conception 
and in execution the ethical enterprise of Jesus was 
nothing less than divine. The appeal to history an<l 
to personal experience as proof of the claim that 
Christ is efficient cause in its execution will be 
made in an extended way in later portions of this 
volume. If the continuity and success of the Chris- 
tian ethical enterprise can be shown to be" due to 
any other cause than the personal living Christ, im- 
manent through the Holy Spirit in his churches, then 
our plea loses its force. But the chief difference 
and distinct mark of this enterprise is not so muoa 
the superiority of ideals as the superiority of the 
motive power employed for their realization. In the 
union of the highest ideals with the most efficient 
moral forces, in variety and magnitude of ethical 
achievement, in its imposing and resistless might aa 
a historic movement, and in vital and dynamic power 
to-day, two thousand years after its inception, the 
ethical enterprise of Jesus is incomparably superior 
to any other the world has known. 



CHAPTER XII. 
miracles: a bond of unity. 

170. A miracle is an event making known to the 
senses the presence of a personal power above the 
physical and human plane, working towards a moral 
end. This definition is far from perfect, as are all 
attempts to define miracles. But it is sufficient for 
the present purpose and in a general way will fur- 
nish a clear conception as a basis for the discussion. 

The miracles of Jesus are the subject of the present 
chapter. All the evidence for those miracles cannot 
be compressed into fifteen pages. Some of it has 
already appeared in the account of the supernatural 
person of Christ. More will be forthcoming in the 
next chapter when the crowning miracle, the resur- 
rection of Christ, is considered, and yet more in the 
chapter on the authenticity and credibility of the 
Gospel narratives. 

171. The defender of the Christian miracles has 
no quarrel with science. He rather invokes the aid 
of science. He has, however, a word or two with 
that class of men whom Professor James so well 
designates as "sectarian scientists. ,, Briefly de- 
scribed, these are investigators in science who have 
an interest in one class of facts only, those of physical 
nature. They are slaves to one method of investiga- 

170 



ATTITUDE TOWABDS MIRACLES 171 

tion, that which deals with matter and motion. At 
the same time they are tyrants in spirit towards other 
searchers for truth in other realms. Kealms of 
investigation in which spiritual and personal facts 
appear are to them irrelevant. Ethics and religion 
are inconvenient, nay, they are an impertinence. 
Why? Because they do not lend themselves to the 
methods which assume in advance that all the facts 
of existence are physical. An intense distaste is thus 
begotten which results in an atrophy of the faculties 
which are employed to discern spiritual facts. The 
physical and the spiritual are opposite poles of the 
sphere of truth. Their attitude is as unreasonable 
as would be that of explorers of the North Pole who 
should despise those who set out on a voyage of dis- 
covery to the Antarctic regions, on the ground that 
the latter are an unreal world, merely because most 
of the recent activity has been in the former direc- 
tion. The follower of Hume, who insists on the sole 
existence of "impressions" and "ideas," and the Spen- 
cerian, who denies everything except "matter" and 
"motion" — all who shut their eyes to a part of the 
facts of the world — are provincials in science. Equal- 
ly provincial are those who turn their backs on re- 
ligious phenomena as having no place in the interests 
of thinking men. 

Not so, however, the true scientist. He is open to 
truth from all sources. Yet even he sometimes deals 
in an inadequate manner with Christian miracles. 
They are regarded as bare marvels, which seem to 



172 MIRACLES: A BOND OF UNITY, 

violate natural law. This is not the way in which the 
New Testament presents them. Their total moral 
and spiritual framework must be recognized. In ac- 
counting for miracles they are no more to be de- 
tached and isolated from their general setting in a 
great and marvelous spiritual movement than a 
comet, when it appears, is to be studied apart from 
the general system of astronomical laws and forces 
of which it is a part. Men who tear away the Chris- 
tian miracles from the moral and spiritual fabric 
into which they are woven and judge them thus have 
simply never faced the real issue presented by New 
Testament miracles. Hence their arguments and 
objections are not pertinent to the question in de- 
bate. 

172. What is the proper attitude of science 
towards miracles? As the order of nature is for the 
most part uniform, science will very naturally scruti- 
nize the evidence for miracles closely. But she has 
no right whatever to deny their possibility. To ex- 
examine the evidence and conclude according to it 
is her sole duty. This point needs to be clearly 
grasped. The belief in miracles proceeds upon a cer- 
tain view as to the unseen force behind the universe, 
viz, that it is a personal God. Science as such has 
no opinion on this point. Her sole task is the obser- 
vation of facts and their proper classification. She 
reduces the co-existences and sequences of nature 
or society or religion to general laws, and seeks to 
describe their action in an exhaustive manner. 



PHILOSOPHY AND MIKACLES 173 

173. It is philosophy rather, and not science, 
which passes behind the scenes and reasons about the 
causes which are at work there. Science, indeed, fur- 
nishes the data from which philosophy builds her 
structures, but is non-committal as to ultimate causes. 
Of course, a scientist may also be a philosopher, but 
the two roles must not be confounded. A man must 
not claim the authority of science for a statement 
when his only warrant is a philosophic deduction 
from facts furnished by science. 

The object of the foregoing remarks is to define the 
rights of the parties to the controversy about miracles. 
The theologian or other Christian thinker, whether 
expert in science or not, has an equal right with the 
scientist to philosophize about the facts which are 
made known by science. The materialist has the 
intellectual right to infer the non-existence of God, 
but other men have an equal right to the theistic 
inference from the facts of nature. Science as such, 
then, is not committed against the Christian view 
of the world which underlies the doctrine of miracles. 

174. Again, philosophy as such has no warrant for 
dogmatizing against the possibility of miracles. Hume 
said miracles are both impossible and incredible. 
They viola te the order of nature ; hence they are im- 
possible. They contradict experience; hence no 
amount of testimony can establish them. His view 
has been met so often and so successfully we need 
not linger over it. It overlooks the fact that one 
kind of experience is that the testimony of a suf- 



1U MIBACLES: A BOND OF UNITY 

ficient number of competent witnesses to an event 
is trustworthy. If such testimony exist as to miracles, 
then one kind of experience would offset another ac- 
cording to Hume's principle, and thus we might have 
conclusive proof of both sides of a contradictory 
statement. 1 Keason can scarcely rest in such a con- 
clusion. Again, if testimony cannot establish a cer- 
tain class of events — that is, those contrary to ex- 
perience^ — then it would follow that anything oc- 
curring for the first time would be incapable of proof. 
Hume's argument is as fatal to the modern theory 
of evolution as to the doctrine of miracles. For when 
any new stage of development is reached no amount 
of evidence could establish it. When life or reason 
appeared for the first time in the upward course of 
things "experience" would be wholly against it. 
Facts, of course, are fatal to arguments. So if Chris- 
tian miracles are facts antecedent objections count 
for nothing. There is no philosophic or other ground 
on which the question of miracles can be prejudged 
and ruled out of court. Komanes, with his usual fair- 
ness, speaking as an investigator outside of Chris- 
tianity, says : "We are not competent judges a priori 
of what a revelation should be. If our agnosticism 
be pure, we have no right to prejudge the case on 
prima facie grounds/' 2 He also says that most of 
the objections to Christianity are of the "anteced- 
ent" kind. 

175. Still another attitude towards the New Testa- 
ment miracles must be noted here. It is now quite 



HALF- WAY POSITION ON MIRACLES 175 

the fashion with some believers in Christ and the 
Gospels to adopt a half-way position on the subject. 
The "miracles" of Jesus are regarded as natural 
events in very large part, if not altogether. The rais- 
ings from the dead, for example, are regarded as 
resuscitations of apparently dead persons. One re- 
cent work cites a number of such modern resuscita- 
tions as examples of what might have been true with 
Christ. 8 Another argues to show that while the 
miracles might have occurred, they were according 
to law in the sense that they were concealed, so to 
speak, in the natural order and broke forth at the 
proper moment. 4 There are numerous writers of 
this school. Some of them distinguish between the 
supernatural, or God's direct action in the spirits of 
men, and the miraculous, his direct action on phy- 
sical nature. They admit the supernatural but deny 
the miraculous. The aim of these writers is to con- 
ciliate science. The doctrine of the divine imma- 
nence, or indwelling in nature, is held to be sufficient 
to account for all things. Miracles in the sense de- 
fined at the beginning of this chapter are unnecessary. 
Indeed, it is urged they are a burden to faith. The 
appeal of Christianity is moral, not physical. Men 
who have the spiritual experience do not need the out- 
ward "sign" or wonder. Miracles belong properly 
to the baggage wagon of the Christian army, not to 
the artillery. It is taken for granted by many of 
these writers that the older view of the miracles is 
entirely out of date. One of them says regarding 



176 MIRACLES: A BOND OF UNITY 

Dr. Robertson Nicoll's telling little book, The 
Church's One Foundation, that it is reactionary, be- 
cause it insists upon the physical resurrection of 
Jesus. 

176. One needs only to study the method of re- 
ducing the New Testament miracles to the natural- 
istic plane, as employed by these writers, to be con- 
vinced of the hopelessness of their task. Nothing 
could well be more farfetched than their interpre- 
tations. By no sort of exegetical ingenuity, for ex- 
ample, can the resurrection of Lazarus be understood 
as Christ's restoration uf an apparently dead man to 
consciousness and health. Again, miracles may not 
be needed to prove Christianity to the man who 
knows God by inner experience. But that inner ex- 
perience renders belief in the miraculous easy and 
natural. It is, indeed, an experimental sample of the 
miracle-working power. In both the fact becomes 
known that a power from without is at work. In 
this way it is a total contradiction to Hume's con- 
tention that miracles are contrary to experience. In 
their essential nature as the coming of a Power from 
without they belong to the most inward and real ex- 
perience of all Christians. Christian experience 
comes up for consideration in the next division of 
this treatise, and we would not anticipate the dis- 
cussion there. But two remarks grow out of that 
just made as to religious experience being a sample 
of the miracle-working power. 

177. The first remark is that our inner experience 



IMMANENCE ALONE INSUFFICIENT 177 

may suggest an analogy according to which we may 
regard the supernatural in the physical realm. The 
"miracle" within man in religious experience touches 
in some mysterious way the springs of conduct, but 
in no degree violates the "order of nature" within the 
human spirit. Of this we are conscious. It is a 
power from without, but it enters according to law 
and acts according to the law of our being. In phy- 
sical nature also the miracle-working power may lay 
hold of matter by a way preordained in the very 
constitution of matter, without "violating" the order 
of physical nature. 

178. The other remark is that the doctrine of the 
immanence of God by itself is not sufficient to solve 
the religious problem. It has a direct relation not 
only to miracle but to the whole redemptive aim of 
Christianity. The fact is that the thing essential in 
miracle, the coming of a force from without, is essen- 
tial everywhere in redemption. Sin and disorder ex- 
ist in the world in spite of the indwelling of God. 
Make the universe miraculous at every point as the 
advocates of the anti-miraculous Christianity claim 
to do. Granted that it is all miraculous in their 
meaning of the word, yet in your supernatural world 
you have sin. In spite of the continuous outflow of 
divinity, making grass, tree, star and man partakers 
of the divine nature, there remain evil and depraved 
natures and moral despair. Admit further that 
progress is by stages most minute, yet man is never 
really lifted higher save by a power which is from 



178 MIRACLES: A BOND OF UNITY 

above. The attempt, therefore, to reduce the New 
Testament miracles to the plane of the purely natural 
will surely result, if consistently carried out, in do- 
ing the same in religious experience. It is vain to 
attempt to smuggle in the supernatural by way of 
religious experience and exclude it from the historic 
Christianity of the New Testament. The extraneous 
force entering the natural order, which offends in 
one sphere will also offend in the other. The con- 
clusion from the above is that while the immanence 
of God is a great and fruitful truth, it is insufficient. 
By itself it leaves the moral interests of man in the 
gravest peril. 

179. Let us next attempt to state the case for the 
Christian miracles. We have in a previous chapter 
discussed theism. The atheist, of course, is not open 
to conviction on the subject of miracles. The general 
assumptions underlying the Christian view of mira- 
cles are few and simple. They are : First, that there 
is a personal God, who is good, who cares for man; 
second, that there is a moral order to which man be- 
longs, and to which human freedom is the key ; third, 
that in the exercise of his freedom man has brought 
sin and disorder into the moral kingdom; fourth, 
that moral interests are higher than those which are 
merely physical. These other assumptions, if theism 
be granted, will scarcely be denied by any. Now, 
miracles as a part of a divine movement to restore 
order, in the Christian view, are the response of God 
to the above situation. 



MIRACLES IMPLY ORDER 179 

180. Let it be particularly noted that the advo- 
cates of Christian miracles are not champions of 
chaos in an ordered universe. Those who are jealous 
for the uniformity of physical nature often imply 
this. The principle of order to which they are pas- 
sionately devoted is not less dear to the Christian 
believer. To the latter, however, it is the moral and 
spiritual order as well as, but not exclusive of, the 
physical. The human will in its choice of evil dis- 
turbed that order, reduced it to chaos. The need is 
that it shall become a cosmos. Miracles are the acts 
of the Lord of that moral order seeking its restora- 
tion. New Testament miracles are practically all re- 
storative in character. Disease, death, sorrow and sin 
are unnatural, abnormal. Christ's miracles restored 
the normal which these forces had disturbed. They 
were not violations of an established order. Their 
chief end and result was to restore. We may not 
say, with Bushnell, that man is supernatural. He 
is rather a part of nature. Yet he is the connecting 
link of nature with the supernatural. As the crown 
of the natural order he points, through his person- 
ality and freedom, to the supernatural Person. The 
evil act of his free will, which was indeed the vio- 
lation of an established order, was not a miracle. 
But miracle is the corresponding right of the divine 
Person to restore. 

181. If the world of men is really a moral world, 
if there be a moral kingdom at all, it is necessarily 



180 MIRACLES: A BOND OF UNITY 

higher than the kingdom of matter. The two king- 
doms are not opposed, but lower and higher parts of 
the one universal kingdom of God. Nature and 
grace when discerned most deeply are seen to be 
one. But the kingdom of nature is for the use of the 
kingdom of grace. Its uniformity and order and its 
stability are necessary to render it a suitable instru- 
ment for the use of the wills of higher spiritual 
beings, who for aught we know may exist in untold 
myriads throughout space. Physical nature has been 
likened to a ball used by a company of boys in a 
game. It is the medium of their intercourse and 
contest with one another. "If the ball changed 
weight, color, density, shape, every moment, no skill 
could be acquired or evinced in the use of it; there 
would be no real test in the game and no social com- 
merce of play in the parties using it. Therefore it 
needed to be so far a constant quantity. So demon- 
strably, there needs to be, between us and God, and 
between us and one another, a constant quantity. 
. . . What we call nature is this constant quan- 
tity interposed between us and God and between us 
and each other — the great ball, in using which our 
life battle is played." 5 It is impossible to give any 
satisfactory account of physical nature save this, 
that it is subordinate to purpose, that intelligence 
employs it for ends. 

182. Miracles, then, from this point of view, would 
not be violations of the natural order, but only the 



PERSONALITY AND MIRACLES 181 

use by intelligence of the lower to promote the ends 
of the higher order. This would involve no disrespect 
to law, but simply that personality is superior to 
physical law. A skeptic challenged a believer, in 
homespun, who was whittling with a jackknife to 
demonstrate that if he let go the knife it could move 
in any direction save downwards according to law 
and under the action of gravity. In reply an upward 
jerk of the knife lodged the point securely in the 
ceiling overhead, and thus the challenge was met. 
Will is as real a force as gravitation. 6 This is not 
cited as an example of miracles, but it illustrates the 
truth that a spiritual being can act upon matter in 
mysterious and unknown ways and produce results 
directly contrary to those which would follow the 
operation of purely physical causes. The process 
by which the will communicated an upward impulse 
to the knife is as inscrutable as the action of God's 
will on physical nature in miracles. All the specu- 
lative difficulties of the one are also involved in the 
other. 

Consider next that the nature of the Christian 
miracles is clear indication of their fitness to be a 
means of accomplishing the restoration of the moral 
order of God. A number of qualities appear in 
Christ's miracles which bear upon this point. 

183. (1) Notice first their remarkable ethical 
quality. It is not too much to assert that miracles 
were Christ's method of philanthropy. They were 
the deed of which the Gospel was the word. They 



182 MIRACLES: A BOND OF UNITY 

were employed to bless men in need. They were the 
expression of love. So far from being mere wonders 
and nothing more were these miracles, that Jesus re- 
peatedly enjoined silence upon the recipients of the 
blessing conferred by them. Then, too, they were 
closely connected with moral renewal. Forgiveness 
of sin and healing of disease were coupled together in 
the same act. Christ uniformly kept the moral inter- 
est uppermost in the miracles and rebuked men who 
contemplated them on the lower plane. Unbelief was 
sometimes the occasion of his failure to work miracles. 
The miracles were indeed a kind of parables. All of 
them are intended to teach some truth of the king- 
dom. 

This ethical quality of the miracles was in har- 
mony with the character and mission of Christ. He 
himself was the great moral miracle. Miracles are 
the proper "phenomena of his person." They are the 
laws of his nature. "It is not that the miracles 
prove the doctrine, or that the doctrine makes credi- 
ble the miracle," says Canon Gore. "It is rather 
that as parts of one whole they cohere as soul and 
body." 7 

184. (2) Again, the miracles of Christ had great 
value as a means of revelation. We are not to regard 
them altogether as "credentials" which Christ ex- 
hibited to prove his mission. This conception has 
been much inveighed against, and it is but a fragment 
of the truth. Miracles are not the chief evidence of 
Christianity and proof of Revelation. Yet they are 



MIKACLES A MEANS OF REVELATION 183 

vitally related to that revelation. If God was actually 
to enter the world to redeem it he might have done so 
possibly "without observation." The transcendent 
God might have opened a secret door, as in the birth 
of Christ, and remained concealed, so far as miracu- 
lous tokens were concerned, to the end. But this 
would have been not a revelation but a hiding of him- 
self. If the entire manifestation could have been 
explained on the natural plane, the supernatural be- 
ing concealed, men would have been slow to believe 
there was anything supernatural present. 

Especially did Fatherhood and grace require 
miracles as evidences of what they were. A father- 
hood and a grace which are confined to the ordinary 
course of nature would appeal but feebly to men. It 
would have been an impotent fatherhood and grace. 
But a breaking through the normal course of things 
showed that as Father manifesting grace through 
Christ he was not bound. If God is to be Father, 
in the highest sense, and Christ is to be true Re- 
deemer, then it must appear that they are both 
within and without nature at the same time and able 
to control it for redemptive ends. 

185. (3) Miracles are usually supposed to offend 
the intellect. In one view they are its highest satis- 
faction. They do not disturb but unify the order of 
the world. They proclaim that the dualism of mat- 
ter and spirit is not the highest truth. They show 
that these two things are somehow under the control 
of one. The spiritual being, who is Lord of nature, 



184 MIBACLES: A BOND OF UNITY 

appears in the miracle to answer the upward flights 
of the reason in its craving for unity and to satisfy it. 

But we must now briefly sum up the evidence for 
the miracles of Jesus, leaving the general discussion 
as to the Gospel records to a later chapter. 

186. (a) We observe first that the disciples were 
well qualified as witnesses. They were not scholars. 
They were not, on the other hand, ignorant and un- 
lettered men in an extreme degree. They were plain 
Jewish business men, able to cope with the problem 
and difficulties of practical life, and with eyes in their 
heads. They had no interest in deceiving men about 
Christ and could not have been themselves deceived 
during three years of intercourse with the miracle 
worker. 

(b) The testimony of the acknowledged epistles of 
Paul is valuable. In these the fact of the resurrec- 
tion of Christ is made the basis of much of the 
teaching and is reiterated in many forms. The entire 
spiritual life of believers is regarded as a resurrection 
life based on that of Christ. Paul says also that he 
himself wrought the signs of an apostle, which, of 
course, refers only to miracles (2 Cor. xii. 12). In 
chapters twelve, thirteen and fourteen of First Corin- 
thians Paul shows that supernatural gifts were com- 
mon in the church. 

(c) The originality of the New Testament miracles 
is suggestive. They are not copies of other types of 
wonders. For there are no others like them recorded. 
The nearest of kin are those of the Old Testament. 



NEW TESTAMENT MIRACLES 185 

But the "miracles" of the Apocryphal Gospels, and 
of ecclesiastical history, as well as those of Moham- 
medanism and Buddhism, are utterly wanting in the 
ethical dignity, the high redemptive aim and use 
which we find in those of the New Testament. 

(d) Again, the account of the miracles could not 
have been added at a later date after the death of 
the apostles. They are a part of the warp and woof 
of the Gospels themselves. Mark, which is very gen- 
erally regarded as the oldest Gospel, is pre-eminently 
a miracle Gospel. It teems with them from begin- 
ning to end. Critics, even of the destructive school, 
say Mark furnished the material common to the three 
synoptic Gospels. In this common material there 
are not less than eleven miracles. 8 The fact is, as 
Doctor Bruce shows, unbelieving opinion at first ac- 
cepted the Gospels as authentic records but explained 
miracles as frauds. When this appeared untenable 
and began to react they ceased to charge fraud and 
took refuge in myths of after ages. 9 

(e) Further, we must observe how vitally the Gos- 
pel miracles are related to the teachings of Christ. 
His doctrine of faith is taught in them as nowhere 
else. So also his teachings as to the Sabbath and on 
other topics. Mr. Lecky says regarding modern free 
thought that it "revolves around the ideal of Chris- 
tianity and represents its spiiit without its dogmatic 
system and supernatural narratives. From both of 
these it unhesitatingly recoils, while receiving all its 
strength and nourishment from Christian ethics." 10 



186 MIBACLES: A BOND OF UNITY. 

This statement may well be offset by one from the 
author of Ecce Homo, whom no one will accuse of an 
orthodox bias. This writer clearly saw the fatal result 
of attempting to dissect the miracles from the living 
organism of the evangelic record. After speaking 
of possible exaggerations in the reports we have of 
Christ's miracles, he says: "On the whole miracles 
play so important a part in Christ's scheme that any 
theory which would represent them as due entirely 
to the imagination of his followers or of a later age 
destroys the credibility of the documents not partially 
but wholly, and leaves Christ a personage as mythical 
as Hercules." 11 

187. The miracles of Jesus, then, are amply sup- 
ported by evidence. They are an offense only to those 
who place things above persons, the mechanical order 
of nature above the moral order. Miracles as Jesus 
employed them are a bond of unity at every point, 
not a doctrine of anarchy. The unity of the Gospel 
records is fatally marred without them. They do not 
violate but restore the dismembered moral kingdom, 
which had been broken up by sin. The doctrines of 
Fatherhood and grace are far from complete without 
them. They vindicate the conception of the universe 
as a family, in which persons are bound together by 
love, over against the conception that the universe is 
merely a cosmos bound together by physical force. 
They suggest to the intellect the clew to the 
final unity of nature and spirit in the Supreme Per- 
son. Miracles, then 2 bring rest to the mind seeking 



CONCLUSION 187 

for ultimate truth by suggesting the bond which se- 
cures a moral, theological and philosophical unity 
in all these ways. They will abide as a part of the 
New Testament records and of the convictions of 
believers. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

188. The following are the facts as Christians be- 
lieve: (1) Jesus died, not in appearance but in 
reality. (2) His body was buried in a tomb as other 
corpses are buried. (3) On the morning of the third 
day he arose from the dead. (4) He appeared re- 
peatedly during forty days to the apostles and other 
witnesses. (5) Afterwards he ascended to the right 
hand of the Father. 

The chief point of emphasis here is the resurrec- 
tion. This is the crucial point. What followed is 
easily conceded if this be established. By resurrec- 
tion it is meant that the body of Jesus was changed 
from a dead to a living body. It is not necessary to 
define fully the nature of his resurrection body. It 
was certainly not in all respects the same as his body 
prior to the resurrection. It may have been in 
process of glorification during the period of appear- 
ances to the disciples. It was doubtless to become 
a "spiritual" body, if not already such. It was to 
be adapted to his spirit as its permanent abode. But 
for present purposes this point may be left on one 
side. We insist now chiefly upon this: the grave of 
Jesus was emptied of its contents. It was no "resur- 

188 



SIMPLICITY OF FACT TO BE PROVED 189 

rection" of his spirit merely, which would have been 
no resurrection at all. What was laid in the grave 
dead came forth therefrom alive. This and nothing 
less is the Christian claim. 

This supreme fact it is proposed to establish by 
testimony, the witness of competent and credible 
men. Meantime, however, we may call it a hypothe- 
sis. It can be established in all the ways insisted 
upon by science in proving hypotheses. It accounts 
for all the facts. No other hypothesis does this. 
These facts to be accounted for are as follows : The 
accounts of the New Testament records, the fact of 
the moral transformation of the first disciples, and 
the facts of Christian history since their day. We 
are not, of course, dealing with mathematics nor 
with physics. We cannot employ theorems nor apply 
scalpel and microscope. The Christian origins be- 
long rather to a department of historical science. 

189. Men, of course, claim and have claimed that 
no amount of evidence can prove a resurrection from 
the dead. What this means is that they decline to 
believe the best of evidence when it relates to one 
class of facts. They repudiate evidence valid in all 
other spheres because of its subject matter. Analyze 
the contents of the testimony as to the resurrection 
of Christ and the denial that testimony can prove 
such a fact becomes absurd. It is a testimony to 
what? To two facts: First, that a man was dead; 
second, that a man was alive. Every day in the week 
the testimony of witnesses establishes both facts. Of 



190 RESURRECTION OF JESUS 

course, in this case it is not testimony that one man 
was first alive and then dead, nor that one man was 
dead and afterwards another man was alive, which 
no one would dispute, but that the same man was first 
dead and then alive. The simplicity of the facts 
of the testimony, merely as facts, however, is as great 
in the last as in the two former cases. 

190. The following are some of the tests which 
may be applied to the evidence for alleged historical 
facts. They are given more fully in Dr. John Ken- 
nedy's excellent treatise, The Resurrection of Jesus 
Christ. One element of certainty in testimony is that 
it is from a contemporary who had personal and im- 
mediate perception of the facts. Another is that the 
witness loves the truth. Sir Cornewall Lewis says: 
"Historical evidence, like judicial evidence, is founded 
on the evidence of credible witnesses." He also says 
the credibility of a witness depends on the four fol- 
lowing conditions: "(1) That the fact fell within 
the reach of his senses. (2) That he observed or at- 
tended to it. (3) That he possesses a fair amount of 
intelligence and memory. (4) That he is free from 
any sinister or misleading interest; or, if not, that 
he is a person of veracity." Canon Rawlinson says 
evidence of the second degree of credibility is that 
obtained by others directly from eye-witnesses. So 
also is evidence derived from trustworthy contempo- 
rary writings. The cumulative force of evidence 
should also be recognized. Once more, the validity 
of evidence in proof of facts must not be determined 



DETAILS OF GOSPEL ACCOUNT 191 

by "the weight of the consequences that may happen 
to depend on them." 1 

191. Consider, first, the evidence of the four Gos- 
pels. Each of these gives numerous details as to the 
resurrection of Christ, The apparent discrepancies 
as to certain points are a trifle compared with the 
overwhelming consensus as to the great fact that 
Christ rose from the dead. The following facts are 
recorded by all: The death of Jesus on the cross; 
the request of Joseph of Arimathea, who obtained the 
body; that it was placed by Joseph in a tomb vari- 
ously described by the evangelists as "Joseph's own 
tomb/' a "tomb hewn out of a rock/' etc. Matthew 
and Mark state that a great stone was placed in the 
door of the sepulchre. Matthew and Mark and Luke 
say that women beheld where Jesus was laid. Mat- 
thew records the sealing of the stone and the placing 
of a guard by chief priests and Pharisees who secured 
permission from Pilate. 

So much for the burial. Then comes the record 
by all that some women went on the third day at 
daybreak and found the grave empty. The stone 
was rolled away. The body was gone. In the various 
account Christ appears to Mary Magdalene; to the 
women; to Peter; to two disciples walking to Era- 
mans ; to the apostles except Thomas ; to the apostles, 
Thomas being present; to seven of the apostles by 
the Sea of Galilee; to five hundred brethren on a 
mountain in Galilee; to James; to the eleven pre- 
ceding the ascension. Thus Christ appeared, in all 



192 RESURRECTION OF JESUS 

ten times, after his resurrection, leaving out the ap- 
pearance to Paul. These appearances were under the 
greatest possible variety of circumstances and condi- 
tions. The first H\e appearances were on the third 
day after the crucifixion, the day when Christ rose. 

192. Consider the variety of circumstances under 
which Christ appeared. He sits at table and blesses 
the bread with two disciples; he had already ex- 
pounded to them the Scripture. He tells a doubting 
disciple to thrust his hands into his side to convince 
himself. He partakes of broiled fish with the dis- 
ciples by the lakeside. An important fact to be noted 
is the numerous teachings of Jesus during the resur- 
rection appearances. This makes it impossible that 
disciples could have merely imagined they saw him. 
He appears to one disciple alone, to two, to the women, 
to the ^welye^ to seven, to five hundred at once. He 
>pears repeatedly in Jerusalem, by the lakeside in 
Galilee, on the Emmaus walk, on the Galilean moun- 
cLc^^ tain, and on the Mount of Olives before the ascen- 
sion. 

On all these occasions and in all these ways the 
witnesses of the resurrection gained their knowledge. 
Their eyes were witnesses, for they saw his familiar 
form. Their ears were witnesses, for they heard the 
same loving accents of his voice. Their minds were 
witnesses, because he taught them with the same old 
authority and power. Their hearts were witnesses, 
because again their affections were stirred to their 
depths by his gracious dealings with them. This 



PAUL'S TESTIMONY 193 

mental and spiritual recognition of Christ is 4f great 
importance. Dr. Kennedy quotes Lord Chief Jus- 
tice Cockburn in the summing up of a celebrated 
trial as follows: "I now pass from the question of 
identity of person to a question which is of quite 
equal or of greater importance, and that is, how far 
there is not outward identity or resemblance but in- 
ward identity of mind." 2 

193. It is clear that none of the disciples ex- 
pected Christ to rise from the dead. The women 
were anxious as to how the stone could be removed 
from the door of the sepulchre that they might enter. 
John says: "As yet they knew not the Scripture, 
that he must rise again from the dead" (John xx. 9). 
On the Emmaus journey Jesus rebukes the disciples 
for being "slow of heart to believe" (Luke xxiv. 25). 
These disciples were sad and despondent over the 
disappointment of all their hopes. 

194. We pass to the testimony of the Apostle Paul. 
His conversion took place when the risen Christ ap- 
peared to him on the way to Damascus. This is his 
own account of the matter. It is the only possible 
explanation of the career of this man, his sudden 
complete change in character and mission. He is 
suddenly transformed from being a man who is seek- 
ing "to suppress the Gospel in every creature into 
a man who seeks to preach the Gospel to every creat- 
ure." The enemy and persecutor becomes the cham- 
pion of the faith. No vestige of evidence exists in 
support of any other theory of his conversion, such 



194 RESUKRECTION OF JESUS 

as a gradual change in Paul's mind due to natural 
causes. 

Paul preached the Gospel of the resurrection 
throughout Asia Minor, in Greece and in Rome. In 
the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians he argues 
not to prove that Christ arose merely, but to show 
the bearing of the doctrine of the resurrection of the 
body on the Christian hope. He sets forth the facts 
as to Christ: "For I delivered unto you first of all 
that which I received, how that Christ died for our 
sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was 
buried ; and that he hatn been raised on the third day 
according to the Scriptures; and that he appeared 
to Cephas; then to the twelve; then he appeared to 
above fi.\e hundred brethren at once, of whom the 
greater part remain until now, but some are fallen 
asleep; then he appeared to James; then to all the 
apostles ; and last of all as unto one born out of due 
time he appeared to me also" (1 Cor. xv. 3-8). 

195. Let it be borne in mind that this epistle is 
undisputed. It was written not more than twenty- 
five years after the death of Christ. The appeal is 
to more than two hundred and fifty living witnesses 
to the resurrection of Christ. Consider the folly of 
such an appeal had there been no such witnesses, or 
had they borne a contrary testimony. The apostle 
enumerates five appearances of Christ. Individuals 
are named from whom he had the opportunity to ob- 
tain the information. He himself saw the risen 
Christ, not in a trance or by means of a vision, but 



CONFIEMATION OF EVIDENCE 193 

actually. What he saw made him a witness of the 
resurrection and an apostle just as Peter and Paul 
and the others were qualified to be apostles. More- 
over, Paul founds his Gospel on the resurrection. 
Without it all was vain. The cross which he preached 
was meaningless. 

196. Here, then, is the chain of proof from the 
testimony of Paul: An eye-witness speaks of what 
he saw ; his witness comes through an authentic docu- 
ment from his own hand ; the testimony relates to an 
event which occurred within twenty-five years of the 
writing of the document; the testimony of the 
writer appeals for corroboration to two hundred and 
fifty living witnesses. Surely all the tests of credi- 
bility may be successfully applied to this testimony. 
Moreover, whatever may be true as to date and au- 
thorship of the four Gospels we have in Paul's four 
acknowledged epistles ample and irrefutable proof 
of the resurrection of Christ. 

197. Consider next the manifold way in which the 
apostolic witness to the resurrection of Jesus is con- 
firmed. It is confirmed in a remarkable manner by 
the sudden and complete moral transformation of 
those who witnessed it. We have already noted the 
case of the apostle Paul. So it was with the others. 
In Jerusalem, in the very mouth of the lion, the 
frightened and fleeing disciples who had denied their 
Lord gather again and with dauntless courage pro- 
claim this most offensive doctrine, and thousands are 
converted. These men are careless now of danger 



196 BESUREECTION OF JESUS 

and of death. Most of them yield themselves to 
stripes, imprisonment, and finally death for the truth 
of their witness. Fraud does not engender such moral 
and physical courage. Delusion does not create moral 
kingdoms of heavenly beauty and power. Psychic 
changes, mere mental impressions, springing up with- 
in and spending themselves after their kind, do not 
rear new fabrics containing material wholly absent 
from the minds in which they occur. The tree brings 
forth fruit after its kind and no other. Here was 
fruit which was not after the human kind. The 
resurrection was the efficient cause, and it alone was 
equal to the result. 

The doctrine of the Person of Christ turned upon 
the fact of the resurrection. He was "marked out" 
to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection 
of the dead, was PauFs way of stating it (Romans i. 
4). His atoning work had no value without the 
resurrection. "He was delivered for our offenses and 
raised again for our justification" (Romans iv. 25). 
The hope of Christ's second coming in glory, in the 
view of New Testament Christians, grew out of the 
resurrection and its attendant events and teachings. 
Moreover, the resurrection of our own bodies is ex- 
pected as a result of that of Christ, who was the 
"first fruits of them that slept." 

It is to be noted also that only a physical resur- 
rection can answer to the total New Testament ac- 
count of what occurred in Joseph's tomb. A mere 
survival of the spirit of Christ is foreign to and in- 



OPPOSING THEOEIES 197 

consistent with every item in the record. Exegesis 
and literary criticism stultify themselves by so violent 
a construction of the resurrection stories. 

There were disputes and controversies among the 
Christians of apostolic times, but no difference of 
opinion existed on this point. The Judaizers troubled 
Paul, but they did not question the fact of Christ's 
resurrection. "Even the heretics who said there was 
no resurrection of the dead (i. e., Christians) could 
be argued with on the ground of their belief in 
Christ's resurrection." 

The first day of the week took the place of the 
Jewish Sabbath as the day of rest and worship as a 
result of the resurrection of Jesus on the first day 
of the week. Every week, then, through the Christian 
era the memorial day has borne witness to Christ's 
resurrection. The Christian church also is an in- 
stitution which rests upon the resurrection as its 
foundation. These two witnesses bear their testi- 
mony to-day and cannot be explained away. 

198. It remains to consider briefly the attempts 
to account for the New Testament records of the 
resurrection of Jesus without belief in the fact of 
the resurrection. Formerly the resurrection stories 
were ascribed to fraud. The disciples stole the body 
away and asserted that he rose, or other form of 
fraud was practiced. This theory is abandoned to- 
day. Its absurdity was enough to condemn it at 
the outset. What possible interest could men have 
had in preaching and dying for a mere dead and 



198 RESUKRECTION OF JESUS 

impotent Christ? The theory of fraud recoiled upon 
its advocates. Christianity as a moral phenomenon 
could not, as Dr. Eobertson Nicoll says, be "built on 
rottenness." Men felt this. Even unbelievers could 
not but admit it. 

199. The alleged resurrection, others assert, was 
due to a swoon. Jesus did not die. He was rean- 
imated, after lying in the grave for three days, from 
only an apparent death. Even Professor Huxley 
among moderns has hinted at this as a possible ex- 
planation. This theory of course denies that even 
the spear-thrust of the Eoman soldier ended the life 
of Jesus, and assumes that the enfeebled body of the 
resuscitated Christ was equal to rolling away the 
stone which was a protection from men without, 
and that somehow Jesus eluded the Eoman guards 
who were placed to watch the tomb. Strauss, who 
rejected the resurrection of Christ, gives the con- 
clusive answer to the swoon theory: "It is impos- 
sible that a being who had stolen half dead out of 
the sepulchre, who crept about weak and ill, wanting 
medical treatment, who required bandaging, strength- 
ening and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to 
his sufferings, could have given to his disciples the 
impression that he was a conqueror over death and 
the grave, the Prince of Life — an impression which 
lay at the bottom of their future ministry. Such a 
resuscitation could only have weakened the impres- 
sion which he had made upon them in life and in 
death ; at the most could only have given it an elegiac 



THEORY OF KEIM 199 

voice, but could by no possibility have changed their 
sorrow into enthusiasm, have elevated their rever- 
ence into worship." 

200. Another theory, advocated by Keim, denies 
that Christ's body was raised, but holds that in 
some way the living spiritual Jesus did communicate 
with the disciples after his death. This recognizes 
the miraculous, but satisfies neither naturalist nor 
supernaturalist. It is utterly inconsistent with many 
passages, such as "Handle me and see," etc. If 
Jesus' body lay in the grave, then he was subject to 
sin and death as other men. The theory empties 
the doctrinal teaching, based on the resurrection, 
by early disciples, of all meaning. The theory also 
fails utterly to account for the empty grave of Jesus. 

201. But we pass to consider the most generally 
accepted modern theory advocated by unbelievers. 
It is known as the hallucination or vision theory. 
Strauss, Eenan and others have held it in one form 
or another. Jesus died, it says, but did not rise. 
His body remained in the grave. Nor did he com- 
municate with disciples. They were in a highly 
excited and excitable nervous state. Mary Magdalene, 
at the tomb, much overwrought, imagined she saw 
Jesus, and told her story to other overwrought disci- 
ples. They heard a window rattle or the wind whistle 
and imagined Christ spoke to them. Others heard 
and believed likewise. Renan thinks that Peter 
dreamed the scene at the lakeside and the interview 
with the risen Jesus. Thus arose the conviction 



200 RESURRECTION OF JESUS 

of the resurrection. Thus the foundation of Chris- 
tianity was laid. For all candid and discriminating 
critics admit that the conviction of the resurrection 
was the heart of the early preaching. 

202. The replies to this theory are manifold and 
conclusive. The mental state of the disciples pre- 
cluded hallucination. Men who see ghosts are usu- 
ally looking for them. A state of expectancy pre- 
cedes the vision. But the disciples were in despair. 
Every hope was blasted by the death of Jesus, as 
the two on the way to Emmaus alleged. Besides no 
past experience prepared for this hallucination. 
Physiological psychology insists that every hallucina- 
tion is the product of previous brain-states due to ab- 
normal stimulus from within or without. But there 
were no brain-states produced by previous experience 
to furnish the contents of this extraordinary halluci- 
nation. Resurrection appearances were not a staple of 
Jewish history. The brain-states which were freshest 
with these men were the result of fear of Jewish and 
Roman rulers, coupled with loss of hope concerning 
Jesus. Jerusalem was the last place in which the 
morbid imagination of a woman could convert a 
large group of cowardly men into moral heroes. Jeru- 
salem just then was not a good vision climate. 

203. Moreover, there were five hundred others 
who came under the power of this hallucination, scat- 
tered abroad even in far Galilee. None doubts. All 
succumb and go forth and turn the world upsida 
down. Men who were mockers and doubters at first 



TEACHINGS OF THE EISEN CHRIST 201 

afterwards yield to the hallucination. There were 
6urely no overwrought nerves or previous brain-states 
with these to induce them to give credence to so re- 
markable a tale. Moreover, the effects of this hallu- 
cination, its power to transform men, survive. The 
test of time has but strengthened its hold on men. 

204. Then, too, these victims of hallucination, 
these men of overwrought nerves, were under a 
strange restraint. Ten times the vision comes, then 
suddenly it ceases. Why? Hallucinations should 
have become chronic after five hundred had been 
brought under their sway. But now hallucination 
gives place to a definite and conquering program of 
evangelization. Not vision now, not dreams now, but 
witnessing and work. Truly these were marvelous 
fanatics ! 

205. But whence the teachings of the risen 
Christ? Hallucination is usually wanting in this 
element. Here were words, thoughts, commands, 
which these evangelists adopt and upon them base 
all their future action. And what of the dead body 
of Jesus all this time ? It was the interest of friend 
and foe alike to produce it. Disciples would wish 
to do so to verify or disprove their hallucination. 
Enemies would surely have done so for obvious rea- 
sons. The empty grave of Jesus baffles every theory 
of resurrection save the true one. Strauss recon- 
structs the story -and allows time for the growth 
and theory of the visions. But it is clear from 
the account that four or five of the appearances of 



202 KESUEEECTION OF JESUS 

the risen Christ occurred on the day of the resurrec- 
tion, the third day after the burial. 

206. The law of cause and effect is violated also 
by the vision theory. It furnishes no explanation of 
Christianity. Spiritualism with its visions produces 
no such moral fruits. Men who write histories of 
Christianity often evade the problem of the cause 
at this point. Strauss and Harnack both recognize 
that the doctrine of the resurrection is the vital 
breath of early preaching and the cause of Chris- 
tianity, but, as historians, waive the question of 
fact. Well they may if denial is proposed. It is 
only as philosophers that they deny or leave doubt- 
ful the fact. 

207. In the realm of testimony, then, by all sci- 
entific methods of dealing with questions of history, 
the resurrection of Christ stands. Regarding the 
assertion that miracle is impossible Dr. Alexander 
Maclaren well says: "One would like to know how 
it comes that our modern men of science, who protest 
so much against science being corrupted by meta- 
physics, should commit themselves to an assertion 
like that. Surely that is stark, staring metaphysics. 
It seems as if they thought that the metaphysics 
which said that there was anything behind the 
physical universe was unscientific ; but that the meta- 
physics which said that there was nothing behind 
physics was quite legitimate, and ought to be allowed 
to pass muster. What have the votaries of pure 
physical science, who hold the barren word-contests 



CONCLUSION 203 

of theology in such contempt to do out-Heroding 
Herod in that fashion, and venturing on metaphysical 
assertions of such a sort?" 3 

Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection 
of Jesus. The issue may as well be squarely faced. 
Other miracles of Christ are easy to accept if this 
one took place. Our hope is built on it. "For if 
he be not risen there is no resurrection; and if ho 
be not risen there is no forgiveness; and if he be 
not risen there is no Son of God; and the world is 
desolate, and the heaven is empty, and the grave is 
dark, and sin abides and death is eternal. If Christ 
be dead, then that awful vision is true, 'As I looked 
up into the immeasurable heavens for the Divine eye, 
it froze me with an empty bottomless eye-socket.' " 
But "we take up the ancient glad salutation 'The Lord 
is risen/ and turning from these thoughts of disaster 
and despair that that awful supposition drags after 
it, fall back upon the sober certainty, and with the 
apostle break forth in triumph, 'Now is Christ risen 
from the dead, and become the first fruits of them 
that slept/ "* 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FOUR GOSPELS : THE LITERARY SOURCES OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 

We have purposely deferred the consideration of 
the evidence for the authenticity of the Gospel rec- 
ords. The aim has been to show the strength of our 
position" independently of nice questions of historical 
criticism. The evidence on the face of the Gospels 
themselves and that based on the undisputed epistles 
of Paul have been set forth in previous chapters. 
We now take up the historical evidence for our four 
Gospels. The Gospel of John presents peculiar prob- 
lems of its own and might well be treated separately. 
But our space can be utilized better in other ways, 
especially as the evidence for the four-fold evangelic 
record can be marshaled in a satisfactory manner in 
a single general view. 

208. Matthew and John were apostles ; Mark and 
Luke were companions of apostles. Thus all the 
Gospels were apostolic in origin. Matthew, Mark and 
Luke were written before the end of the first Chris- 
tian century; John near the close of the century, 
but still within its limits, and last of the four. These 
are the Gospels, these the writers, and these the 
dates, as we maintain. 

204 



THE STARTING POINT 205 

The first task will be to present as concisely as 
may be the historical evidence. Then we shall con- 
sider this evidence from a variety of points of view. 
The face value of the evidence is very great; it is, 
indeed, convincing in itself. But the evidence is 
fruitful in other ways. It supplies material for the 
construction of a very strong confirmatory argument. 

209. The usual starting point in dealing with 
this subject, the close of the second century of our 
era, is as convenient as any. Between A. D. 180 
and 200 what do we find ? We find that throughout 
the Christian world in a circle of churches surround- 
ing the Mediterranean our four Gospels were re- 
ceived without question and ascribed to the authors 
named above. No other alleged records of the life 
of Jesus Christ were accepted as authentic by the 
churches at large at this time. 

210. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, in Gaul, from A. 
D. 178 to 202, in his work against heresies says: 
"Matthew published his Gospel writing among the 
Hebrews in their own language." A little further on 
he says: "Mark, the disciple and secretary of Peter, 
having committed to writing the things proclaimed by 
Peter, transmitted them to us. Then Luke, the com- 
panion of Paul, recorded in a work the Gospel 
preached by him. Afterwards John, the disciple of 
the Lord, who had leaned his head on his breast, 
himself also published the Gospel while he dwelt at 
Ephesus in Asia." 1 Irenaeus assures us that no other 
gospels were recognized by the churches and that 



206 THE FOUB GOSPELS 

these four Gospels were. There is no intimation that 
any one disputed them. 

211. According to Clement of Alexandria, who 
wrote about the end of the second century, Matthew 
and Luke were written first; Mark, a companion of 
Peter, deriving his knowledge from Peter, wrote at 
the request of hearers of the latter; and John "hav- 
ing ascertained that the bodily things had been pub- 
lished in the Gospels, urged by the notables and 
impelled by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel." 2 
Clement says he derived his information from the 
oldest presbyters. 3 He refers to a statement in an 
apocryphal gospel as not found in "the four Gospels 
which have been handed down to us."* 

212. The writing known as the Muratorian Frag- 
ment was written about 170 A. D. Part of the writ- 
ing is gone. Its opening reference is to Mark. It 
says Luke's Gospel stands third in order, having 
been written by Luke, the physician, the companion 
of Paul. The fourth place is given to the Gospel 
of John and the occasion of its composition is set 
forth at some length. The author of this fragment 
says the contents of all the Gospels were declared 
by one Sovereign Spirit, and there is no hint of 
doubt or dispute as to their acceptance. 5 

Tertullian, a bishop of North Africa about 200 
A. D., in his work against Marcion contends with 
vehemence for our four Gospels, mentioning thera 
all by name. He contrasts them with later for- 
geries and refers them to the authority of the 



CLOSE OF SECOND CENTUEY 207 

churches which uphold the tradition of the Apos- 
tles. 8 

213. One of the earliest Bibles was that of Syria, 
the Peshito, dating back to about 170 A. D., and it 
contains all four of our Gospels. 

Thus it appears that at the close of the second 
century in Gaul on the West, in North Africa, and 
in Syria, our four Gospels were universally accepted. 
They were the sole authoritative Gospels for the 
entire Christian world. Dr. Westcott remarks that 
"all the Fathers at the close of the second century 
agree in appealing to the testimony of antiquity" 
for our New Testament books. "And the appeal 
was made at a time when it was easy to try its 
worth. The links which connected them with the 
apostolic age were few and known: and if they had 
not been continuous it would have been easy to 
expose the break. But their appeal was never gain- 
said; and it still remains as a sure proof that no 
chasm separates the old and the new in the history 
of Christianity." 7 

214. Hitherto we have considered the evidence 
for our four Gospels at the end of the second century. 
Can we find secure footing as we move backward 
towards the apostolic times? The evidence for this 
earlier period is ample to convince the unbiased 
student. Tatian is a writer who comes a little earlier 
than Tertullian, Irenaeus and Clement, between 155 
A. D. and 170. In his Address to the Greeks Tatian 
shows his dependence on the Gospel of John for cer- 



208 THE FOUR GOSPELS 

tain passages. He also prepared a harmony of the 
Gospels called Diatessaron. This harmony contains 
all of our four Gospels. It was known only through 
other writers until the latter part of the last century. 
Critics denied that it was such a harmony. But 
the discovery of Ephraem's commentary upon it and 
the Diatessaron itself put a quietus upon critical 
denials. 8 

Tatian was a hearer of one who comes still earlier. 
Justin Martyr wrote two apologies and a dialogue 
with Trypho, a Jew. The date of these works is 
not far from the middle of the second century, prob- 
ably before that time. A tolerably complete account 
of the life of Christ can be constructed from Justin's 
quotations or citations from early records. He calls 
these records "Memoirs" of the Apostles. They were 
also called Gospels. 9 These memoirs were generally 
received by Christians, were read in the assemblies, 
they had apostolic authority, and were composed by 
apostles or their followers. The most reasonable 
view is that in quoting from the "Memoirs" Justin 
is making use of our four Gospels. His quotations 
are not always verbally accurate. But this was true 
of his quotations from the Septuagint, and does not 
necessarily imply his use of other sources. But even 
conceding that he employed a score or more of other 
records besides our four, the striking fact appears 
that practically all his citations conform to state- 
ments in our Gospels. The half dozen or so of his 
references to the life of Christ not found in our 



JUSTIN MARTYR AND POLYCARP 209 

Gospels are not ascribed by him to the "Memoirs/' 
but to other sources. This demonstrates conclusively 
that if our four Gospels were not Justin's "Memoirs" 
then they contain the substance of those memoirs 
so far as Justin'/ 1 writings exhibit that substance. It 
was unnecessary for Justin to refer to the authors of 
the Gospels by name as he was writing for unbe- 
lievers. They did not recognize apostolic authority. 
Moreover, the canon had not yet been formed and 
the se*al of authority affixed to the collection of sacred 
writings. When we recall now that Tatian, the 
disciple of Justin, when he wrote his harmony, the 
Diatessaron, included our four Gospels, the conclusion 
seems forced upon us that Justin's memoirs were 
our Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. A few ref- 
erences only, it is true, are taken from John, yet 
there are sufficient to indicate clearly a connection 
with Johannine facts and ideas. For example, his 
references to regeneration, to Christ as the Word, and 
to Him as taking flesh and becoming man, and as 
God coming forth from above, show his close con- 
formity to the teachings of John. 10 . 

215. Behind Justin Martyr stands Papias, bishop 
of Hierapolis, in Asia Minor, whose testimony links 
us with apostolic men and women. Papias was born 
about 65 A. D. He published an Exposition of the 
Oracles of Our Lord about 135 A. D. Papias was 
acquainted with companions and friends of seven 
apostles and two disciples of the Lord. He says he 
learned that Mark's Gospel was the report of Peter, 



210 THE FOUE GOSPELS 

and that Matthew wrote in Hebrew. Aristion and 
the "Presbyter John" were the surviving disciples of 
the Lord whom Papias knew. The "elder" informed 
him about Mark's Gospel. There is no mention of 
Luke and John in the fragments of the writings of 
Papias which have been preserved. These frag- 
ments we have preserved in the Ecclesiastical History 
of Eusebius, who wrote about 300 A. D. Papias may 
have referred to Luke and John in the original work. 
It was not required by the aim and plan of Eusebius 
to tell all he found in Papias, or other sources from 
which he drew. Eusebius explains that he meant 
to narrate not all but only the most interesting and 
significant facts regarding the Gospels. 11 Eusebius 
himself accepted all four of the Gospels. Indirectly 
then his neglect to mention Luke and John in con- 
nection with Papias implies that Papias does mention 
these Gospels. For had he been silent about them 
this would have been an interesting and significant 
fact itself, like those given about Matthew and Luke. 
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was born A. D. 70, 
and suffered martyrdom about 155 A. D. He wrote 
an epistle to the Philippians and quotes from Mat- 
thew, Mark and Luke, though not from the Gospel 
of John. Did Polycarp accept John's Gospel, or did 
that Gospel exist in Polycarp's day? Certain facts 
seem conclusive on this point. For one thing Poly- 
carp was thirty years old when the Apostle John 
died and had known him well. Irenseus in a letter 
to Florinus speaks of his intercourse with Polycarp 



SUMMAEY 211 

when a "youth." He remembers "the place in which 
the blessed Polycarp used to sit when he discoursed, 
and his goings out and his comings in . 
and how he would describe his intercourse with 
John, and with the rest who had seen the Lord." 
Irenaeus goes on to say that Polycarp related what 
he thus heard as to the miracles and teachings of 
the Lord "as having received them from eye-wit- 
nesses of the life of the Word/' and further that 
he (Irenaeus) noted them down in his heart and 
ruminated upon them faithfully. 12 

Thus it appears that Polycarp is the link connect- 
ing Irenaeus with the apostolic era. Irenaeus at 
the end of the second century accepts John's Gospel 
along with the others as undisputed. From Poly- 
carp, a personal follower of John, he had learned 
in his youth. Could it have been on other authority 
than that of Polycarp that Irenaeus accepted the 
fourth Gospel? There seems to be no reasonable 
ground for an affirmative answer to this question. 

216. Let us briefly glance over the ground we have 
covered. At the end of the second century we find on 
the evidence of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and 
Tertullian that our four Gospels were universally 
accepted and that no others were. This fact clearly 
implies that the Gospels had been in existence a 
considerable time. Otherwise they could not have 
gained such general acceptance in the four quarters 
of the civilized world. Behind this group of witnesses 
we find an earlier witness, about 160 A. D., in Tatian 



212 THE FOUE GOSPELS 

and his harmony of the four Gospels, called the 
Diatessaron. Behind Tatian again stands his teacher 
and friend, Justin Martyr, prior to 150 A. D., with 
his numerous references to the "Memoirs," in sub- 
stantial agreement with our Matthew, Mark, Luke 
and John. As a buttress to the testimony of Justin 
on the other side, and connecting us with the apos- 
tles themselves, stand Polycarp and Papias and their 
writings, with clear references to Matthew, Mark 
and Luke, while Polycarp and Irenaeus join hands 
to confirm the generally accepted view that John the 
Apostle wrote the fourth Gospel. We have seen in 
a previous chapter the agreement of the accepted 
epistles of Paul with the Gospels, in their various 
representations as to the facts of the life of Christ. 
This chain of evidence seems to establish beyond 
reasonable doubt the view that our Gospels are of 
apostolic origin. 

217. We turn next to a new form of the argu- 
ment. In the end the question of authenticity of the 
four Gospels turns upon historical evidence. But such 
evidence as we possess speaks a manifold message 
which is by no means exhausted when we have set 
it forth without comment. We propose now to see 
if the facts as presented can be exhibited in any 
new and convincing light. Our starting point shall 
be two facts clearly established. The first is that 
the sole ground of acceptance of the testimony of the 
Gospels by the churches everywhere at the end of 
the second century was their apostolicity. The 



CKITEEION OF APOSTOLICITY 213 

churches believed that these writings owed their ori- 
gin to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Whether 
they were correct in this belief or not, the fact of 
the belief is clear. The second fact from which we 
start is that in the age immediately succeeding Christ 
the one final test of the authoritativeness of any 
Christian teaching was apostolicity. This appears in 
the Book of Acts and the accepted epistles of Paul, 
to say nothing of the Gospels themselves, and I think 
will not be disputed by any. The apostles were the 
authorized founders of Christianity. It is true that 
in the early portion of the apostolic age the testi- 
mony was oral and not written; and that at the 
end of the second century testimony was written and 
not oral. But the point of importance for us is that 
in the initial and terminal stages of this period 
apostolicity was the standard by which oral or written 
testimony was finally tested. 

218. The question to be considered is, How did 
this principle work during the hundred years from 
the time of the death of the apostles towards the 
end of the first century and the time of the universal 
acceptance of the four Gospels as apostolic near the 
end of the second? The natural supposition is that 
the apostles would not fail to leave a written gospel 
bearing the stamp of their authority, as they realized 
the future need of the churches, and particularly as 
the churches called for such writings. This natural 
supposition is confirmed by what we have seen as 
to the origin of the four gospels. These apostolic 



214 THE FOUR GOSPELS 

writings would at once take the place of the apostles 
themselves as sources for the Christian facts and 
teachings. They would naturally be guarded with 
jealous care. If at a later time any writing ap- 
peared claiming to be apostolic it would at once be 
challenged and its claims investigated. There is, 
then, no place between the apostolic era and the 
end of the second century when the Gospels could 
have sprung into being and have established their 
claim to be apostolic. 

219. The above, I say, is the natural, not to say 
necessary, supposition. But there is an abundance of 
historical facts which corroborate it. One fact of 
very great importance is quietly ignored by those 
who deny the apostolic origin of the Gospels. The 
fact is this: There was a discriminating and se- 
lective process which governed the churches in the 
first and second centuries of a very rigid character. 
The easy assumption that our Gospels are the result 
of the gradual growth of myths about Jesus forgets 
that a most resolute purpose on the part of the 
churches runs through these centuries against the 
acceptance of mythical gospels. There were mythical 
writings in abundance, it is true. There was the 
Gospel according to the Hebrews with a decidedly 
legal tendency; the Gospel according to the Egyp- 
tians with an ascetic tendency; the Protevangelium 
of James, giving an account of Mary, to show her 
perpetual virginity. There was also the Gospel of the 
Infancy, attributed to the apostle Thomas, full of 



THE SELECTIVE PROCESS 215 

grotesque and imaginary miracles. There were, in- 
deed, more than two score of these writings, or frag- 
ments, of one kind or another. Yet none of them 
ever gained general acceptance among the churches. 
Why was this? Doubtless because the opportunities 
for detecting and exposing forgeries were so great 
that none of them succeeded in gaining a secure 
footing. 13 

Indeed, some of these non-apostolic writings which 
contained sound teaching were in use for a time in 
some of the churches. The Shepherd of Hernias was 
one of these. But when the issue arose as to its 
apostolic origin it was rejected. A strong reaction 
appears about the time of Justin Martyr against even 
this kind of use of these non-apostolic writings. 
Christians began to feel that these unauthorized pro- 
ductions were about to imperil the standing of the 
true records and hence the principle of apostolicity 
was applied more rigidly than ever. 14 

220. Another fact of interest is that this mass of 
literature, claiming authority as apostolic, yet unable 
to establish it, was quite secondary to our Gospels in 
contents. They were written to fill in the breaks in 
the Gospels, or were fanciful stories of the infancy 
of Jesus, or for other like purposes. They depend on 
our Gospels for their interest and without them 
were merely "detached leaves," as Godet expresses it. 
Now the rejection of these writings shows clearly 
that a careful selective principle controlled in dealing 
with writings about Christ during this period. The 



216 THE FOUK GOSPELS 

canon of the New Testament was not formed blindly. 
The early churches were on their guard against im- 
posture. 

There is still further illustration of this selective 
principle in the formation of the authorized collec- 
tion. Luke informs us in his preface that many had 
taken in hand to narrate the things concerning 
Christ. Doubtless numerous disciples of Christ be- 
sides the apostles felt warranted in undertaking this 
task. What became of all these early gospels ? How 
comes it that four only survive? If the principle 
of apostolicity controlled, the explanation is simple. 
And in this case it must have controlled from the 
beginning. Four were clearly recognized as coming 
from apostles or apostolic men, and as bearing, so 
to speak, the apostolic seal. The others were of sec- 
ondary worth. They were slowly dropped out as 
unnecessary. 

221. The activity of the selective process finds 
confirmation in another way. There is to-day what 
is called the "synoptic problem" among critical stu- 
dents of the New Testament. The problem is to 
show the relations existing between Matthew, Mark 
and Luke. Various theories have been advanced to 
account for the likenesses and unlikenesses found in 
these three Gospels. Some say Mark is the oldest 
and that the other two depend on this Gospel. The 
theories cannot be even suggested here. But the ex- 
istence of a "synoptic problem" to-day based on the 
close inner relations of these Gospels is itself a mark 



THE "SYNOPTIC PROBLEM " 217 

of the unity of the Gospels. Common causes were 
at work producing a result at the same time one 
and various. The unity in variety of the first three 
Gospels as modern critics see them is but a new form 
of the early note of unity and common origin dis- 
cerned in these writings by the Christian churches. 15 

There is another way to illustrate the selective 
process which controlled the Christians of the sec- 
ond century in determining which writings should 
be accepted. Opponents of Christianity and heretical 
sects bore no small part in the life of that period. 
Celsus, one of the most able of the earlier foes of 
Christianity, made use of our four Gospels. He wrote 
in the second century. His works perished, but Or- 
igen quotes from him copiously. Celsus used all four 
canonical Gospels as the basis of his attacks, and 
only these. Why ? Evidently because from no others 
could he have drawn the generally accepted Chris- 
tian facts and doctrines. The sharp eye of the in- 
telligent enemy may be trusted to find the real point 
of attack. 16 

Marcion, a heretic about 140 A. D., mutilated the 
Gospel of Luke and along with it accepted Paul's 
epistles because he thought he could thus best sup- 
port his heresy. Thus Marcion also testifies to the 
accepted writings from the side of the heretics. 
If there had been other accepted writings which he 
could have employed to better advantage he would 
have done so. In like manner the Ebionites used 
the Gospel of Matthew, and the Docetae the Gospel 



218 THE FOUR GOSPELS 

of Mark, and the Gnostics the Gospel of John. These 
parties built on bad exegesis of generally accepted 
writings. In the case of the Gnostics a very sharp 
controversy was carried on with the Christians. If 
there had been doubt as to John's Gospel, the use 
of it by the Gnostic heretics would have led to its 
rejection by the churches. 17 

222. Thus it appears that our Gospels were re- 
ceived by practically all parties. The Alogi, a small 
and shadowy sect, objected to some things taught by 
John and rejected his Gospel. But this single note of 
opposition but accentuates the general unanimity. 
The fact is that virtually all the positive evidence 
is in favor of and not against the authenticity of 
the fourth Gospel. That it was quoted less than 
the synoptics in the early controversial writings of 
Christians was probably due to the fact that the 
synoptics are less doctrinal and deal more with the 
facts of Christ's life. As to Matthew, especially, 
there is a mark of antiquity in its use in some form 
by the Judaizers. This party dates back to Paul's 
time, as is well known. Yet in the second century 
they adhere to a form of Matthew. There is no way 
to explain how this came about, save on the supposi- 
tion of the antiquity of Matthew. 18 

223. Let us recall now that two of our Gospels 
bear internal witness to their authorship. Luke in 
his preface tells how his account was written, and in 
the 27th verse of the last chapter of John it appears 
that disciples attest the authorship. Call to mind 



AGEEEMENT OF THE CHURCHES 219 

also that jealousies and disputes early arose among 
the churches. Questions of primacy, and of doctrine 
and practice, began to assert themselves. The east 
and the west did not agree on a question about 
Easter. Yet amid all their differences there was 
complete unanimity in their acceptance of our four 
Gospels. This was not an agreement enforced by 
any ecclesiastical authority, for such central authority 
did not then exist. The intercourse between the parts 
of Christendom through missionary activity was con- 
stant. All claims, true and false, would be sub- 
jected to the most rigid scrutiny. Thus arose the 
unanimity which was so marked and invariable. 

We have seen that apostolicity was the criterion at 
the beginning, when Christianity began its career 
after the crucifixion. Apostolicity was the criterion 
at the end of the second century, concerning which 
all parties are now agreed. We have also shown in 
a manifold way that between this initial and the 
terminal stage of the early Christian epoch apos- 
tolicity was the criterion, and that Christian be- 
lievers were on their guard against spurious Gospels 
and epistles. A selective and critical process guided, 
not indeed in the modern scientific sense, but in a 
very real sense; a process to be trusted because of 
the interests at stake, the number and competency 
of the witnesses, and the many historical evidences 
which attest it in the writings still extant. 

224. The burden of proof is upon those who 
deny the authenticity of our four Gospels to show 



220 THE FOUR GOSPELS 

how they arose and became current under the cir- 
cumstances we have outlined, after the apostolic age. 
This has never been done without violence to much 
of the evidence. It is usual for them to seek to 
undermine the credibility of the witnesses. Irenaeus 
especially has been attacked. So have many of the 
others. But when due allowance is made for all 
the considerations which have been urged, the evi- 
dence is quite conclusive. The reader is referred to 
the bibliography of this chapter in the back of 
the volume for references to works which discuss the 
objections to the testimony of our witnesses. There 
is not space here to deal with them adequately. 

Of course, if we had all the literature of the period 
which has perished we would doubtless discover evi- 
dence more complete and satisfactory on some points. 
But even here we have in a sense a document which 
serves us instead of this literature. Eusebius, who 
wrote his Ecclesiastical History about the end of the 
third century, had these writings before him, and 
based his conclusions upon what he discovered in 
them. He accepts our four Gospels, and these alone. 
Evidently if this literature had contained evidence 
against any of our Gospels, Eusebius would have 
found it. The chief objections to John's Gospel 
to-day are due not to lack of external attestation by 
historical evidence but to internal peculiarities, which 
we confidently believe are more than offset by other 
internal peculiarities plus a very considerable amount 
of external evidence. 



VALUE OF CUMULATIVE EVIDENCE 221 " 

225. In conclusion, we must not forget the power 
of cumulative evidence. Practically all the testimony 
points one way. It may now and then be open to 
objection, but when we consider its abundance, its 
uniformity, its variety, and its range over the entire 
Christian world of the first and second centuries, 
there is no room left for reasonable doubt. The 
choice, then, is between no evidence at all and such 
evidence as we have set forth. Straws even show the 
direction of the current. The movement of one 
straw over a short distance might be due to an eddy, 
but when there are many historical straws moving in 
one direction over a two hundred year period there 
can be no mistaking which way the stream is flowing. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CHEIST AND EVOLUTION: HIS PLACE IN THE WORLD 
ORDER. 

Having completed our view of Jesus Christ as he 
appears before us as a historic figure and having 
looked finally at the documents containing the rec- 
ords of his manifestation to the world, it is proper 
that we close this division of our subject by con- 
sidering Christ's relations to the order of the world 
in the larger sense. This we may accomplish by seek- 
ing an answer to the following questions : Is Christ 
the product of evolution ? If not, what relation does 
he sustain to the general order of nature and to 
human history as a whole? The first of these ques- 
tions can be reduced to this : Is Christ an effect or is 
he a cause? Evolution, according to Professor Le 
Conte, proceeds in its upward course by means of 
"resident forces/' that is to say, forces residing in the 
order which undergoes development, and not by 
means of forces introduced from without. Was Christ 
produced thus, or did his coming involve a departure 
from the method? 

226. The answer to all these questions will be 
found by considering three statements, as follows: 
(1) Christ is the crown but not the product of nature. 



CHRIST THE CROWN OF NATURE 223 

(2) Christ met conditions created by human experi- 
ence, but was not evolved out of that experience. 

(3) Christ was thus the fulfillment of supernatural 
purpose, fitting harmoniously into world conditions. 

227. First, then, Christ is the crown but not 
the product of nature. The question has often been 
discussed by theologians whether the incarnation of 
Christ would have been necessary had man not 
sinned. Apart from sin would there have existed 
other needs in man's moral progress to be met only 
by an incarnation of the Son of God? Some assert 
that in any case the incarnation would have occurred. 
Others that as Christ's mission was redemption a 
redemptive need alone could have occasioned an in- 
carnation. The question is speculative and need not 
detain us. Dr. James Orr is probably right in saying 
that the unity of the divine plan requires us to sup- 
pose that both sin through human freedom and in- 
carnation were originally provided for in the mind 
of God. Having foreseen the one he provided for 
it by means of the other. It does not detract from, 
but rather adds to its value as a movement for the 
rescue of man from sin, that the incarnation was 
also deeply imbedded in the divine plan of the uni- 
verse ; Christ certainly sustains profound relations to 
physical nature. "All things have been created 
through him and unto him, and he is before all 
things, and in him all things consist" (Col. i. 
16, 17). 

We pass by this theological question, however, to 



224 CHEIST AND EVOLUTION 

observe that Christ as he is portrayed in the New 
Testament fitly crowns the whole course of nature 
when nature is viewed as a revelation of God, and as 
the sphere of his action. Nature progressively re- 
veals God. Power, wisdom, skill, in a thousand 
forms, are made known through his handiwork in 
inorganic nature. In the next stage life, through 
its many phases, unfolds higher elements in the di- 
vine nature, and at length reason, conscience, will 
and personality in man still higher conceptions of 
what God is. Says a recent writer: "Something 
of God is manifest in the mechanical laws of inor- 
ganic structures; something more in the growth and 
flexibility of vital forms of plant and animal; some- 
thing more still in the reason, conscience, love, per- 
sonality of man. Now from the Christian point of 
view, the revelation of God, the unfolding of divine 
qualities, reaches a climax in Christ. God has ex- 
pressed in inorganic nature his immutability, im- 
mensity, power, wisdom: in organic nature he has 
shown also that he is alive; in human nature he has 
given glimpses of his mind and character. In Christ 
not one of these earlier revelations is abrogated : nay, 
they are reaffirmed: but they reach a completion in 
the fuller exposition of the divine character, the 
divine personality, the divine love." 2 In short, unless 
Christ had appeared in due order the prophecies of 
revelation, so to speak, contained on the lower planes 
of nature would have been left unfulfilled. At each 
stage in the upward progress something new is added 



VIEW BASED ON THEISM 225 

to the self-disclosure God is making of himself. In 
man, the goal of the natural order, that revelation is 
incomplete. In Christ it is carried to its utmost 
limit. 

228. Now it will be seen at a glance that this in- 
terpretation of nature is based on theism. Indeed, 
it is based upon a theism which thinks of God as 
actively engaged revealing himself to intelligent 
creatures. It does not, however, assert that Christ is 
entirely the product of forces "resident" in the nat- 
ural order. It rather implies the contrary. On one 
side, indeed, Christ is bound to the natural order. 
His birth from a human mother, his beautiful and 
beneficent human life, subject to earthly conditions, 
clearly exhibit this. There remains, however, the 
irreducible divine element which requires another 
explanation. 

So far, then, as Christ fits the order of nature as 
its crown and consummation, we are led thereby to 
look up to a Being outside that order, who acts upon 
it from without, for any adequate explanation of the 
character and mission of Christ. The facts we are 
considering would have no meaning for evolution 
carried on by blind impersonal force. 

If the modern scientific theory of development 
leaves us confronting the natural man as the goal and 
explanation of the preceding process, Christianity in 
its turn brings us face to face with Christ, the super- 
natural Son of God, as the higher key to the history 
of nature and of man. Thus God perfects what he 



226 CHEIST AND EVOLUTION 

began when he laid the foundations of the universe, 
first by producing a Being in his own image, and 
capable in the completest way of fellowship with 
himself, and second by sending one from above to 
restore the fellowship when broken by sin. 

229. The first and third Gospels assert that Jesus 
Christ had no human father. Nothing elsewhere in 
the New Testament in the slightest degree indicates 
the contrary; much, indeed, especially the writings 
of Paul and John, indirectly confirms the account of 
the Virgin birth. No conclusive evidence against it 
has been deduced from any source. We do not pro- 
pose, however, to enter upon this question. The writer 
is confident that the virgin birth will remain if the 
other supernatural aspects of Christ's Person are 
sustained. It is implicit in all the rest, especially in 
his sinless life and in the resurrection and ascension 
Our past chapters have, it is hoped, established the 
supernatural character of Christ's Person and mis- 
sion. We do not fear for the fate of the doctrine 
of the miraculous birth of Jesus so long as the other 
contentions securely stand. It is proposed, however, 
to show that Jesus was not the result of natural evo- 
lution from another point of view, viz : that he could 
not have been the product of forces existing at the 
time of his advent. This leads us to the second propo- 
sition. 

230. That proposition is : Christ met conditions 
created by human experience but was not evolved out 
of the experience. The moral condition of mankind 



CHRIST MET A MORAL NEED 227 

in the world at large, when Christ came, was most 
deplorable. By a partial view, of course, any period 
may be shown to be corrupt. But the testimonies of 
competent witnesses on this point leaves no room 
for doubt. The pages of Livy, of Juvenal, and even 
of Seneca, the moralist, and others, bear out the 
statement as to the general condition of morals in 
Home and the Empire. Mommsen and Gibbon re- 
produce their pictures in vivid colors. Seneca says: 
"So public has iniquity become, so mightily does it 
flame up in all hearts, that innocence is no longer 
rare : it has ceased to exist." 3 The palace of the em- 
perors might have been with equal propriety likened 
to a nest of unclean birds or a den of ferocious 
beasts. Parricide, matricide, fratricide, every form 
of cruelty and revenge, held high carnival in a mire 
of voluptuousness and lust. The ancient religions 
were in disrepute, and their priests laughed in each 
other's faces as they ministered about the heathen 
altars. 

231. Moral teaching was not wanting among some 
philosophers, but it was a vain thing for the regen- 
eration of such an age. Aristotle, with his usual 
wisdom and penetration, had already discerned the 
weakness of morals alone. Speaking of books and 
treatises on ethics he pronounces them incapable of 
making men good, and says "the truth is that they 
seem to have power to urge on and to excite young 
men of liberal minds, and to make a character that 
is generous and truly fond of the honorable, easily 



228 CHRIST AND EVOLUTION 

influenced by virtue; but that they have no power 
to persuade the multitude to what is virtuous and 
honorable." 4 

On the side of thought and speculation a corre- 
sponding paralysis had fallen upon men. It is un- 
necessary to point out the universal skepticism in 
which Greek philosophy had grown pale and feeble 
with age. The men of more profound thought had in 
the glorious days of that philosophy reached out to 
the boundaries of human speculation, and, with an 
intellectual humility which was as sane as it was 
beautiful, had acknowledged it. The well known 
words of Plato sound like a prophecy of Christ, and 
mark the meeting place of man's upward strivings 
after God and God's downward Teachings after men : 
"We will wait for One, be it a God or a God-inspired 
man," said Plato, "to teach us our religious duties 
and ... to take away the darkness from our 
eyes." 5 Again, "We must lay hold of the best human 
opinion in order that borne by it as on a raft we may 
sail over the dangerous sea of life, unless we can 
find a stronger boat, or some word of God, which 
will more surely and safely carry us." 6 

"What* is truth?" was the cynical and despairing 
question of Pilate to him who declared himself to 
be the Truth. 

232. As to the future life neither philosophers 
nor moralists had any sure word for men. Suicide 
was regarded by the best of them, in the later periods 
of philosophy, as the fitting method of terminating 



JUDAISM WITHOUT PROMISE 229 

an unhappy existence. Says Uhlhorn: "Happiness 
was no longer the goal of philosophy. Man despaired 
of attaining it. . . . Here, too, heathenism ended 
in barrenness and despair. . . . Patet exitus. The 
way out of this life stands open. That is the last con- 
solation of expiring heathenism. "Seest thou," ex- 
claims Seneca, "yon steep height? Thence is the 
descent to freedom. Seest thou yon sea, yon river, 
yon well? Freedom sits there in the depths. Seest 
thou yon low, withered tree? There freedom hangs. 
Seest thou thy neck, thy throat, thy heart? They 
are ways of escape from bondage." 7 Surely the 
words of Seneca are a pathetic revelation of the vanity 
and futility of his ethical precepts as a means of arm- 
ing the soul for its life conflict. Surely in this soil 
we find no germs of the Christ. 

233. Let us ask next: Does Judaism furnish a 
soil out of which Christ and Christianity might have 
been evolved on natural lines ? Here was the highest 
morality the world had known in its Old Testament 
literary form. In the life of the people, however, it 
had degenerated into an empty formalism. The 
Essenes, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees were the 
three leading and representative groups in Jewish 
life. The Essenes were an ascetic and mystic order 
or brotherhood, living a secluded life. Jesus had 
no contact with them, so far as is known, and his 
teachings directly opposed theirs. The Sadducees 
were the cultivated skeptics of the day, denying the 
resurrection and spiritual life beyond the grave. The 



230 CHBIST AND EVOLUTION 

Pharisees were the great popular party. They were 
narrow bigots and formalists of the most pronounced 
type, and received at the hands of Jesus most scath- 
ing denunciation. There was a small remnant of 
pious Jews scattered about in Israel who bore some 
of the marks of genuine spirituality. But these even 
were shocked and offended beyond measure at Christ's 
messianic programme. By no combination of ele- 
ments in Judaism could Christ's teachings have 
sprung up, to say nothing of his character. 

Nor was there anything in current Jewish litera- 
ture which could have produced Christ's ideals. The 
Messianic elements in that literature are temporal, 
carnal, narrow and Jewish. Nor were there ethical 
ideals which he might have gathered up into a sys- 
tem such as he has left us. His ethical precepts were 
startlingly new and original. They were the reversal, 
not the development, of the morality of the day. "The 
first shall be last and the last first." "He that findeth 
his life loseth it, and he that loseth his life for my 
sake findeth it." The greatest in the kingdom was he 
who was like the little child and the servant of all. 
Love to all men was to make us like our Father in 
heaven. Says a writer on this subject : "You cannot 
develop inclusiveness from exclusiveness. The latter 
shuts out while the former invites in. They are in 
direct opposition to one another. The principle under- 
lying this worldwide inclusiveness is called agape/' 8 
This agape, or love in the universal Christian sense, 
was utterly unknown in Christ's day. Hence, we 



CHEIST DESTROYED JUDAISM 231 

conclude, there was not possible any natural transi- 
tion from contemporary to Christian ethics. 

234. Consider for a moment the destructive re- 
sults of Christ's work upon contemporary Judaism, 
and the implacable hostility of the Jews becomes 
clear. He annihilated the entire Jewish system. Tem- 
ple, priesthood and sacrifices vanished in due time 
under his sway. They became irrelevant and meaning- 
less. A localized worship also received its deathblow 
at his hands. Scarcely a Jewish ideal, as cherished by 
the people of his day, was left in its integrity by 
him. The rulers saw the drift of things and slew 
him. "The struggle for life" in the usual evolutionary 
sense in which Christ engaged with his environment 
ended at the outset in complete disaster to him and 
his cause, by his death on the cross. Not a trace of 
its renewal appears until after his resurrection. 
Christ's Jewish environment could never have pro- 
duced a Christ. The following statements may sum 
up the case: Contemporary Judaism might have 
produced (1) A Jew with messianic claims but not 
a sinless one; (2) a religious reformer but not a re- 
deemer; (3) a political conception of the messianic 
kingdom but not an ethical one; (4) a national Jew- 
ish but not a worldwide altruistic movement; (5) a 
Messiah with Jewish but not one with divine at- 
tributes; (6) a movement launched in the teeth of 
every existing tendency in the social and political 
realm outside of Judaism, but not a successful one. 

235. In Judaism, however, we find the clew to all 



232 CHRIST AND EVOLUTION 

history prior to the advent of Christ. Paul is the 
type. He interprets Judaism for us. Ceremonial 
and legal righteousness ended in failure and despair. 
The law, even in its more spiritual form, was a school- 
master to lead the soul to Christ. This was, as we 
might say, the secret function of the law. It pre- 
pared for Christ by not being recognized in its earlier 
stages as a schoolmaster leading to him. It led to 
him by being honestly tried on its merits and found 
insufficient. On the Damascus road Saul became 
Paul when Christ was revealed in him. After his 
conversion Paul constantly referred to the "mystery" 
which was committed unto him to make known to 
his brethren. This mystery was the new way of 
righteousness by faith in Christ, which must take 
the place of Pharisaic and legal righteousness. Thus 
to Paul was Christianity the most radical and revo- 
lutionary of forces. It entered his life from above. 
It could never have found access otherwise. If, as is 
so often and truly asserted, modern Jews are a strong 
proof of Christianity, it is true in a sense not usually 
recognized. The Jews are the living embodiment of 
a divine purpose and fulfillment of prophecy, but 
they do no more. They accentuate and signalize the 
supernatural and anti-Jewish, and anti-evolutionary 
nature of the force with which they collided in early 
Christianity. 

236. Glance hastily now at the ground we have 
covered. Judaism led to Christ by ending in moral 
despair. It is thus that it becomes the key to the 



CHRIST A DIVINE PRODUCT 233 

general movement. In like manner we recognize that 
the moral, religious and intellectual despair of con- 
temporary heathenism prepared the way for Christ. 
Everywhere the deep cry of the soul was for the 
bread of life, and chiefly because everywhere it had 
recognized in horror the lamentable fact that it had 
been trying to feed upon a stone instead of bread, a 
serpent instead of a fish. a The fulness of times" 
was the recognition of the emptiness of the morals 
and religions of the times. Christianity was the 
Plenum, which came at the right moment from above 
to fill this vacuum. Thus we see how Christ came 
to meet conditions created by human experience but 
was not evolved out of that experience. 

237. Christ, then, was not the product merely of 
the forces immanent in the world before he came. 
Yet he was not violently thrust into the world. There 
was a divine preparation for Christ. A movement 
from above kept pace with that below. If God broke 
the silence of the ages in the most satisfying way 
when the voice of Jesus sounded over the Judean 
hills it was not the first time he had spoken. Jewish 
prophecy shows this. Indeed, God had been at work 
preparing the world for Christ's advent. The facts 
are familiar. They need not detain us. The political 
unity of the world under the sway of Rome ; the com- 
mercial unity resulting therefrom ; the linguistic unity 
of the known world in the well-nigh universal preva' 
lence of the Greek language — these were the condi- 
tions which made it possible for the Messiah to address 



234 CHRIST AND EVOLUTION 

as his audience not the Jews merely but the race. The 
Koman roads were the highway and the Greek lan- 
guage the medium and the widespread Jewish syna- 
gogues the connecting link, so that a religion owing 
its origin to the Jewish race could become universal. 
238. This religion did not owe its origin to the 
Jewish race in the naturalistic sense, as we have seen. 
Israel was the channel into which was poured a 
stream from above. We must now look at the stream. 
It appears conspicuously in Old Testament prophecy. 
Prophetic optimism was the spiritual blossom on the 
stock of Israel which was its chief glory. The golden 
age of Israel was not in the past as with other peoples, 
but in the future. The splendor of that age was to 
be not material but ethical. The ethical and re- 
ligious conceptions underlie all the imagery borrowed 
from the Davidic kingdom, pointing to Messiah's 
reign. There is not space for considering details of 
prophecy here; nor is there need. The impre»siveness 
of the argument for Christianity from prophecy is 
greatly enhanced by viewing it in its larger aspect. 
Prophecies of Christ there are beyond question. Much 
controversy has taken place regarding some of them, 
as the Immanuel passage, for example, in the seventh 
chapter of Isaiah. But when all is said, pro and con, 
about such passages there remains standing and tower- 
ing above the common level of thought in the heart 
of this ancient literature the radiant column of Mes- 
sianic expectation. No critical ingenuity has been 
able to destroy it. The future Messiah rises to the 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY 235 

mind of the prophet as the "shoot out of the stock of 
Jesse" (Isaiah xi. 1) ; or as the governor who shall 
issue forth from Bethlehem (Micah v. 2), or as the 
Branch who shall deal wisely and execute justice in the 
land (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, and Zech. iii. 8) ; or as King 
coming to Jerusalem, lowly and riding upon a colt, 
the foal of an ass (Zech. ix. 9) ; or as the ideal king 
who is to reign upon the throne of David forever and 
ever, whose name is to be called, the Wonderful, 
Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and 
Prince of Peace (Isaiah ix. 6, 7). These and other 
prophecies present an irreducible messianic element. 
The prophecies in Isaiah regarding the suffering 
servant of Jehovah find the completed fulfillment 
only in Christ (Isaiah liii., &c). 

But Israel was a prophetic race. Its total life was 
a prophecy. There were prophetic elements therein 
which appeared as such only when they were gathered 
up in Christ. And they were all gathered up in him. 
Consider how Christ is related to the total life of 
Israel. The law terminated in him serving as a tenta- 
tive provision until he came, and reaching maturity 
in him. Prophecy culminated in him the greatest of 
the prophets. He was the ideal and final priest. Sac- 
rifice reached its full stature and was canceled in his 
supreme sacrifice. The significance of the temple 
itself was exhausted in his person. He was the tem- 
ple, man's mode of fellowship with God. Probably 
his deep religious experience in the temple when a boy, 
as recorded in the synoptic record, finds its key in his 



236 CHRIST AND EVOLUTION 

awakening consciousness of his relations to temple, 
priest and altar. The writer of Hebrews gives us the 
Jewish interpretation of Christ's realization in him- 
self of the total religious system of Israel. But Christ 
was also Messianic King. This was the constant note 
of prophecy regarding him. 

239. Note also how Jesus united in himself con- 
tradictory elements which no Jew of his day would 
have dreamed of conceiving thus. How startling the 
conception of priest and sacrifice in the same indi- 
vidual. The union of priesthood and kingship was in- 
tolerable to the Jewish mind. A King of Israel was 
smitten with leprosy for assuming priestly functions. 
Another union of contradictories in Christ was that 
of the human and divine. God wished to be King of 
Israel in the early days. The desire of the people for 
a human king was sin on their part. Yet in Christ 
both the divine will and the human longing find ful- 
fillment. Thus every ideal of Israel converged in 
Christ in the most startling and unexpected way. The 
prophets and all the higher spirits of Israel longed for 
the kingdom of God. But the form it took in Christ, 
canceling and abolishing rather than purifying the 
Kingdom of Israel, was foreign to their minds. 

It must be clear to the reader now that Christ was 
no effect produced by causes residing in Israel. He 
was rather the answer to the total appeal of Israel to 
the future, which had in it implicit at every point in 
his day, the confession of inability and failure. Law 
usually evolves into new stages of law; prophecy 



SUMMAKY 237 

evolves into more elevated or more debased prophets 
and prophecy ; ritual and worship into more elaborate 
forms; national life into new political organizations. 
Christ, on the contrary, personalized all these ele- 
ments in himself, and broke the course of evolution. 
Yet in him begins a new stage of spiritual evolution 
under the direction of supernatural forces. The 
highest individual product, Christ himself, appeared 
not at the end but at an intermediate point in the 
upward progress of the race. The crown of the de- 
velopment is to be in a redeemed race which shall re- 
produce individually and socially his image. Thus 
we are led to the conclusion that Christ was the em- 
bodiment and realization of a supernatural purpose 
and fitted perfectly into world conditions. 

240. We may thus sum what we have said : We 
have the world's moral and religious emptiness on one 
side and his fullness on the other ; no natural evolution 
could bridge the chasm between. We have the natural 
creation culminating in a sinful humanity on one 
side and his sinless humanity as the crown and goal 
on the other; no natural evolution can bridge the 
chasm between. Again, we have the prophetic, civic 
and religious order of Israel on one side, and at once 
their annulment and realization in his person on the 
other; no natural evolution can bridge the chasm 
between. We are not surprised, then, to find Paul 
declaring the Being who fills so large a place to be 
the first and final cause of creation. At least the 
creative act traveled through him, and all things were 
created unto him (Col. i.). 



PART III. 



THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPE- 
RIENCE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

241. The fact of religious experience is no longer 
seriously disputed. It is too fundamental in the life 
of man and is written too largely on every page of 
history to be denied. All sorts of ways of account- 
ing for it, of course, are in vogue. The important 
point to be noted is that now at length science recog- 
nizes her duty and is beginning to study it as an 
order of facts in the world. These facts are subject 
to the operation of law as are the facts of material 
nature. 

242. The limits of this work do not admit of a dis- 
cussion of religious experience in general. Our task 
is rather to indicate the bearing of religious ex- 
perience upon the evidences of Christianity. To this 
end we must present the evidence not of Moham- 
medan or Buddhist, but of Christian experience. The 
fact is there seems to be little data of religious ex- 
perience in the personal sense outside of Christianity. 
Professor William James has been impressed by this. 
Speaking of the lack of material other than Chris- 
tian for his study of religious experience, he says: 
"The absence of strictly personal confessions is the 
chief difficulty to the purely literary student who 

241 



242 DATA OP CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

would like to become acquainted with the inwardness 
of religions other than the Christian." x Moreover, 
our limits of space demand that we seek only the 
distinctive forms of Christian experience. This ex- 
perience must be considered as it appears in its rep- 
resentative types. Whatever residual questions there 
may be after we have done this, we shall at least have 
fairly faced the Christian facts. The present chap- 
ter, therefore, will be devoted to the data of Chris- 
tian experience. And the data will consist chiefly of 
recorded accounts of conversion by those whose char- 
acter and intelligence warrant the belief that they 
are trustworthy witnesses, and whose lives have been 
rich in the ethical and spiritual fruits of Christianity. 

243. We begin with the conversion of Paul the 
apostle to the gentiles as related by himself. 

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but 
brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, in- 
structed according to the strict manner of our fath- 
ers, being jealous for God, even as ye are all this 
day : and I persecuted this Way unto the death, bind- 
ing and delivering into prisons both men and women. 
As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all 
the estate of the elders : from whom also I received 
letters unto the brethren, and journeyed to Damascus 
to bring them also that were there unto Jerusalem in 
bonds to be punished. 

"And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, 
and drew nigh unto Damascus, about noon, suddenly 
there shone from heaven a great light round about 



PAUL'S EXPERIENCE 243 

me. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice 
saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 
And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said 
unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou per- 
secutest. And they that were with me beheld indeed 
the light, but they heard not the voice of him that 
spake to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? 
And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into 
Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all 
things which are appointed for thee to do. And when 
I could not see for the glory of that light, being led 
by the hand of them that were with me, I came into 
Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man accord- 
ing to the law, well reported of by all the Jews that 
dwelt there, came unto me, and standing by me 
said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And 
in that very hour I looked up on him. And be said, 
The God of our fathers hath appointed thee to know 
his will, and to see the Eighteous One, and to hear 
a voice from his mouth. For thou shalt be a witness 
for him unto all men of what thou hast seen and 
heard" (Acts xxii. 3-15). 

"For I make known to you, brethren, as touching 
the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not 
after man. For neither did I receive it from man, 
nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my man- 
ner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that 
beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and 
made havoc of it: and I advanced in the Jews' re- 



244 DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

ligion beyond many of mine own age among my coun- 
trymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the tra- 
ditions of my fathers. But when it was the good 
pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my 
mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to 
reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among 
the Gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh 
and blood : neither went I up to Jerusalem to them 
Arabia: and a^ain I returned unto Damascus" (Gal. 
i. 11-17). 

244. We give next the experience of the apostle 
John. "That which was from the beginning, that 
which we have heard, that which we have seen with 
our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands han- 
dled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was 
manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and 
declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was 
with the Father, and was manifested unto us) ; 
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto 
you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: 
yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with 
his Son Jesus Christ: and these things we write, 
that our joy may be made full. 

"And this is the message which we have heard 
from him and announce unto you, that God is light, 
and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John i. 1-6). 

245. One of the most interesting of the early con- 
fessions is that of Polycarp, whose martyrdom oc- 
curred early in the second century. 



POLYCAKP 245 

"He looked up to heaven and said, '0 Lord God 
Almighty, the Father of Thy beloved and blessed Son 
Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowl- 
edge of Thee, the God of angels and powers, and of 
every creature, and of the whole race of the righteous 
who live before Thee, I give Thee thanks that Thou 
has counted me worthy of this day and this hour, that 
I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, 
in the cup of Thy Christ, to the resurrection of eter- 
nal life, both of soul and body, through the incor- 
ruption imparted by the Holy Ghost. Among whom 
may I be accepted before Thee this day as a rich 
and acceptable sacrifica, according as Thou, the 
faithful and true God, hast fore-ordained, hast re- 
vealed beforehand, and hast now fulfilled. Where- 
fore also I praise Thee for all things, I bless Thee, 
I glorify Thee, along with the everlasting and heav- 
enly Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son, through whom to 
Thee, with him and the Holy Ghost, be glory both 
now and to all ages. Amen.' " It would be difficult 
to quote from any post-apostolic source a more com- 
plete summary of the Christian faith, alike in its 
dogmatic contents and in its moral inspiration. 2 

246. St. Hilary's account of his own religious ex- 
perience is also suggestive. 

"God the Word was made flesh, that, through God 
the Word made flesh, flesh might go forward to God 
the Word. * * * 

"This doctrine of the divine mystery my mind 
joyfully adopted, going forward to God through the 



246 DATA OF CHEISTIAN EXPBEIENCE 

flesh, and being called to a new birth through faith, 
and committed to its own power that it might obtain 
a heavenly regeneration; recognizing the care be- 
stowed on it by its Father and Creator. * * * 

"And that my soul might not be impeded by any 
error of worldly wisdom, it was further taught to 
have a most complete faith in this pious confession by 
the Apostle in his divine words: 'Beware lest any 
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, 
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead 
bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the 
head of all principality and power; in whom also ye 
are circumcised with the circumcision made without 
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh 
by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in 
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through 
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised 
him from the dead/ * * * 

"In this state of ease, then, and conscious security 
my mind had rested, rejoicing in its hop is, and so far 
from fearing the coming of death, that it even reck- 
oned it as that of eternal life. And this its bodily 
life it not only did not consider as wearisome or dis- 
agreeable, but looked on as being what letters are to 
childhood, what medicine is to the sick, what swim- 
ming is to the shipwrecked, what learning is to young 
men, what military service is to those who are in 
future to command; an endurance, in fact, of the 
present state of things, profitable towards the reward 



LUTHER 247 

of a blessed immortality. Furthermore, that which 
is believed for itself, it also preached to others in 
the ministry of the priesthood which had been laid 
on it, extending its own gift to the service of the gen- 
eral weal." 3 

247. The following vigorous language taken from 
Luther's treatise De Libertate Christiana, is of the 
nature of a personal experience. 

"Christian faith has appeared to many an easy mat- 
ter; of whom not a few have classed it among the 
moral virtues, nay, have made it merely a sort of at- 
tendant on virtue. And this they have done because 
they have never proved what it is in their own ex- 
perience, nor internally tasted its power. Whereas no 
one can truly describe it himself, nor really under- 
stand it when truly described, unless he has at some 
time, under the fiery trial of pressing conflicts, tasted 
the spirit of it in his own soul. And he who has 
really tasted this, even in the smallest degree, can 
never write of it, speak of it, think of it, nor hear of 
it enough ; for it is, as Christ calls it, 'a living foun- 
tain springing up into everlasting life' (John iv.). 

"As to myself, though I may not boast of an 
abundant stock of this grace (for I deeply feel my 
straitened deficiency), yet I do trust that out of the 
great and various tribulations under which I have 
been exercised I have gotten of faith a certain 
drachm ; and that I can therefore treat of it, if not 
more eloquently, yet certainly more substantially than 



248 DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

any of those learned and subtle ones have hitherto 
done in all their labored disputations. * * * 

"But you will ask, Which word of God is this, 
and how must it be made use of, for there are so many 
words of God? I answer, the Apostle Paul, Kom. i, 
explains which it is. The Gospel of God concerning 
his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was incarnate, 
and crucified, and who is risen again, and glorified by 
the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier. For the preaching of 
Christ, feeds, justifies, sets free, and saves the soul 
that believeth what is preached. For faith alone is 
the saving and effectual use of the word of God, as in 
Eomans x, 'If thou shalt confess with thy mouth that 
Jesus is the Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart 
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt 
be saved/ Again, 'Christ is the end of the law for 
righteousness to every one that believeth/ And again, 
Eomans i, 'The just shall live by his faith/ Nor can 
the word of God be received and embraced by any 
works whatever, but by faith only. And therefore it 
is clear that, as the soul needs nothing but the word 
unto life and righteousness, it is justified, without any 
works, by faith only. For if it could be justified by 
anything else, it would have no need of the word, and 
consequently no need of faith/' 4 

248. John Bunyan also shows us how powerfully 
Christ laid hold upon him. 

"I must first pass a sentence of death/*' he says, 
"upon everything that can properly be called a thing 
of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my chil- 



BUNYAN AND MONOD 249 

dren, my health, my enjoyments, and all, as dead to 
me, and myself as dead to them; to trust in God 
through Christ, as touching the world to come; and 
as touching this world, to count the grave my house, 
to make my bed in darkness, and to say to corruption, 
Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my 
mother and sister. . . . The parting with my 
wife and my poor children hath often been to me as 
the pulling of my flesh from my bones, especially my 
poor blind child who lay nearer my heart than all I 
had besides. Poor child, thought I, what sorrow art 
thou like to have for thy portion in this world ! Thou 
must be beaten, must beg, surfer hunger, cold, naked- 
ness, and a thousand calamities, though I cannot now 
endure that the wind should blow upon thee. But yet 
I must venture you all with God, though it goeth to 
the quick to leave you." 5 

249. Adolphe Monod accentuates the note of sad- 
ness which so often marks the early stages of religious 
experience. 

"My sadness," he says, "was without limit, and 
having got entire possession of me, it filled my life 
from the most indifferent external acts to the most 
secret thoughts, and corrupted at their source my 
feelings, my judgment, and my happiness. It was 
then that I saw that to expect to put a stop to this 
disorder by my reason and my will, which were them- 
selves diseased, would be to act like a blind man who 
should pretend to correct one of his eyes by the aid 
of the other equally blind one. I had then no resource 



250 DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

save in some influence from without. I remembered 
the promise of the Holy Ghost; and what the positive 
declarations of the Gospel had never succeeded in 
bringing home to me, I learned at last from necessity, 
and believed, for the first time in my life, in this 
promise, in the only sense in which it answered the 
needs of my soul, in that, namely, of a real external 
supernatural action, capable of giving me thoughts, 
and taking them away from me, and exerted on me 
by a God as truly master of my heart as he is of the 
rest of nature. Renouncing, then, all merit, all 
strength, abandoning all my personal resources, and 
acknowledging no other title to his mercy than my 
own utter misery, I went home and threw myself on 
my knees, and prayed as I never yet prayed in my 
life. From this day onward a new interior life began 
for me; not that my melancholy had disappeared, but 
it had lost its sting. Hope had entered into my heart, 
and once entered on the path, the God of Jesus Christ, 
to whom I then had learned to give myself up, little 
by little did the rest." 6 

250. Hudson Taylor's experience is very distinctly 
marked. 

"Whilst I was reading the evangelical treatise, I 
was soon struck by an expression : 'The finished work 
of Christ/ 'Why/ I asked of myself, 'does the author 
use these terms ? Why does he not say, "the atoning 
work?" ' Then these words, 'It is finished/ presented 
themselves to my mind. 'What is it that is finished V 
I asked, and in an instant my mind replied : ' A per- 



HADLEY 251 

feet expiation for sin; entire satisfaction had been 
given; the debt has been paid by the Substitute. 
Christ had died for our sins; not for ours only, but 
for those of all men. If, then, the entire work is fin- 
ished, all the debt paid, what remains for me to do T 
In another instant the light was shed through my 
mind by the Holy Ghost, and the joyous conviction 
was given me that nothing more was to be done, save 
to fall on my knees, to accept this Saviour and his 
love, to praise God forever." 7 

251. S. H. Hadley, the well-known Christian 
worker of New York, gives a vivid portrayal of the 
steps leading to his conversion. 

"One Tuesday evening I sat in a saloon in Harlem, 
a homeless, friendless, dying drunkard. I had pawned 
or sold everything that would bring a drink. I could 
not sleep unless I was dead drunk. I had not eaten 
for days, and for four nights preceding I had suf- 
fered with delirium tremens, or the horrors, from 
midnight till morning. I had often said, 'I will never 
be a tramp. I will never be cornered, for when that 
time comes, if ever it comes, I will find a home in the 
bottom of the river.' But the Lord so ordered it that 
when that time did come I was not able to walk one 
quarter of the way to the river. As I sat there think- 
ing, I seemed to feel some great and mighty presence. 
I did not know then what it was. I did learn after- 
wards that it was Jesus, the sinner's friend. I walked 
up to the bar and pounded it with my fist till I made 
the glasses rattle. Those who stood by drinking 



252 DATA OF CHEISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

looked on with scornful curiosity. I said I would 

never take another drink, if I died on the street, and 

really I felt as though that would happen before 

morning. Something said, 'If you want to keep this 

promise, go and have yourself locked up/ I went to 

the nearest station-house and had myself locked up. 
* * * 

"A blessed whisper said, 'Come;' the devil said, 'Be 
careful.' I halted but a moment, and then, with a 
breaking heart, I said, 'Dear Jesus, can you help me ?' 
Never with mortal tongue can I describe that moment. 
Although up to that moment my soul had been filled 
with indescribable gloom, I felt the glorious bright- 
ness of the noonday sun shine into my heart. I felt I 
was a free man. Oh, the precious feeling of safety, of 
freedom, of resting on Jesus ! I felt that Christ with 
all his brightness and power had come into my life; 
that, indeed, old things had passed away and all things 
had become new. 

"From that moment till now I have never wanted 
a drink of whisky, and I have never seen money 
enough to make me take one. I promised God that 
night that if he would take away the appetite for 
strong drink, I would work for him all my life. 
He has done his part, and I have been trying to do 
mine." 8 

252. Sir Algernon Coote's account is brief, but 
pointed and clear. 

"After luncheon we read together the 5th chap- 



COOTE AND MAHAN 253 

ter of St. John's Gospel, and the 24th verse showed 
me that I might believe then and there. We knelt 
in prayer and praise together, and at 1 :45 p. m. on 
Monday, January 29, 1866, I accepted the gift of 
'everlasting life/ and Christ became my Saviour. 

"I was just eighteen years of age, and the son of 
godly parents." 9 

253. Captain A. T. Mahan, the well-known 
authority on naval subjects, is no less clear. 

"I happened one week-day in Lent into a church 
in Boston. The preacher — I have never known his 
name — interested me throughout; but one phrase 
only has remained : 'Thou shalt call his name Jesus, 
for he shall save his people' — here he lifted up his 
hands — 'not from hell, but from their sins.' Almost 
the first words of the first Gospel. I had seen them 
for years, but at last perceived them. Scales seemed 
to fall from my eyes, and I began to see Jesus Christ 
and life, as I had never seen them before. I was 
then about thirty. Personal religion is but the co- 
operation of man's will with the power of Jesus 
Christ, that man's soul, man's whole being may be 
saved, not for his own profit chiefly, but that he may 
lay it thus redeemed, thus exalted, at the feet of 
him who loved him and gave himself for him." 10 

254. The experience of Bishop H. C. G. Moule 
has a strong evangelical ring. 

"That dark time ended by divine mercy, in a full 
and conscious acceptance, in great need, of our cruci- 
fied Redeemer, Christ our Sacrifice, in his complete 



254 DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

atonement, as peace and life. The circumstances of 
that discovery are too sacred for detail. It is enough 
to say that it was granted to me to make it, and to 
find in 'Christ for me' the divine answer to that 'ex- 
ceeding need/ the sight of sin as guilt. 

For ever here my rest shall be, 
Close to Thy bleeding side; 

This all my hope, and all my plea, 
For me the Saviour died. 

"My short statement, on purpose, closes here. In 
our Lord Jesus Christ, as indeed I have found, sin- 
ful man has to discover treasures and mercies great 
and wonderful in directions other than that great 
primary blessing. But 'Christ for me' in the order 
of thought, and of the divine idea, whether or no in 
the order of experience, comes first and in the 
depths." 

255. Dr. R. A. Torrey, the well-known evangel- 
ist, tells his story and the secret of an assured faith. 

"In that awful hour I knelt down and told God 
that if he would take the awful burden from me, I 
would preach the Gospel. 

"I found peace immediately, and went back to 
bed and slept. Strangely enough, I did not come 
out as a Christian at that time, but plunged deeper 
than ever into a life of worldliness. But I never 
gave up the resolution of preaching the Gospel; in 
fact, I told my resolution to many, and I presume 
most of them thought I was joking, for my life was 



TOREEY AND EWING 255 

anything but that of one prepared to preach the Gos- 
pel. 

"On my nineteenth birthday (which happened to 
be on the day of prayer for colleges), I resolved to 
give up the kind of life I was leading, and some 
months after that I made a public profession of 
Christ in the College Chapel, just shortly before my 
taking my A. B. degree. I returned in the fall to 
study for the B. D. degree. While in the Divinity 
School, largely through the influence of Gibbon, I 
was plunged into utter agnosticism. I determined to 
know the truth, whether the Bible was the Word of 
God or not ; whether there ever was such a person 
as Jesus Christ, and whether he was the Son of God 
or not, and whether there was any God. Out of this 
darkness I came into the clear light of an assured 
faith in all the great Christian verities." 12 

256. The following story of J. Ewing shows, like 
the others, the central place of Christ in religious 
experience. 

"While in this state of purgatorial misery I was 
one day walking by myself and humming Sankey's 
hymn, 'There is life for a look at the Crucified One. J 
After getting through the first verse I came to the 
second — 

Oh, why was He there as the Bearer of sin, 
If on Jesus thy guilt was not laid? 

"We read in The Acts that Saul of Tarsus was 
struck down by a light stronger than the noonday 
sun, and heard a voice from heaven speaking to him. 



256 DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

I was not struck down, nor did I hear a voice from 
heaven, but the light from above pierced my mind as 
truly as it did that of Saul. In a moment I saw 
where my salvation and my peace lay, and also the 
mistake I had been making. I had been inverting 
God's plans by seeking peace and forgiveness before 
trusting in Christ. But now I saw that my salvation 
depended on a Person, and not on any religious ex- 
ercises — on Jesus and not on my own faithfulness. 
Then I could actually realize how the lame man in 
the temple stood up and walked and praised God, or 
how Zachaeus received the Saviour joyfully into his 
house. My soul was set free, the chain was loosed, 
and the Word of God became my joy and my delight. 

"Many years have passed since then, and many 
times I have been in engagements, where bullets have 
been flying and shells bursting and screaming all 
around, but I have never lost the consciousness that 
Christ was crucified for me, and my sweetest periods 
of trust and communion have been in hours of most 
deadly peril. After fourteen years' service I took 
my discharge from the army, and soon after entered 
the service of the Army Scripture Headers' Society. 
My one desire has ever been to bring others to the 
same Saviour whom I have found, and my grateful 
joy has been that I have had the happiness of lead- 
ing many a soldier and many a civilian to the same 
precious Lord to whom I was led myself." 18 

257. Eev. Steve Holcombe, a converted gambler, 



STEVE HOLCOMBE 257 

has for many years exerted a strong influence for 
good in Louisville, Ky,, in the conduct of a mission. 
He enjoys the confidence of the public and his power 
for good increases with the passing years. The fol- 
lowing is his story, much condensed : 

"From the day I joined his church," says Mr. 
Holcombe, "that minister seemed to understand me 
better than I understood myself. He seemed to 
know and did tell me my own secrets. He led me 
into an understanding of myself and my situation. I 
saw now what had been the cause of my restlessness, 
my wanderings, my weariness and my woe. I saw 
what it was I needed, and I prayed as earnestly as I 
knew how from that time. I attended all the ser- 
vices — preaching, Sunday-school, prayer-meeting, 
class-meeting in any and all kinds of weather, walk- 
ing frequently all the way from Second street to 
Portland, a distance of three miles, because I was 
making too little to allow me to ride on the street- 
car. But with all this, I felt something was yet 
wanting. I began to see that I could not make any 
advance in goodness and happiness so long as I was 
burdened with the unforgiven guilt of forty years 
of sin and crime. I grew worse and heavier until I 
felt I must have relief, if relief could be had. One 
day I went in the back office of my business house, 
after the others had all gone home, and shut myself 
up and determined to stay there and pray until I 
should find relief. The room was dark, and I had 
prayed, I know not how long, when such a great 



H5S DATA OF CHEISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

sense of relief and gladness and joy came to me that 
it seemed to me as if a light had flooded the room, 
and the only words I could utter or think of were 
these three: ' Jesus of Nazareth/ It seemed to me 
they were the sweetest words I had ever heard. 
Never, till then, did the feeling of blood-guiltiness 
leave me. It was only the blood of Christ that could 
wash from my conscience the blood of my fellow- 
man." 14 

258. We give next a scientist's confession of 
faith. This bearer of the degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy from a German university, Miss Emily 
L. Gregory, associate professor of botany at Bryn 
Mawr, later a member of the botanical staff of the 
University of Pennsylvania, and founder of the de- 
partment of botany in Barnard College, New York, 
is a typical example of the struggle and triumph of 
faith in a modern scientist. As a result of her scien- 
tific studies she said she had given up all faith ex- 
cept a dim belief in a "First Cause." A sermon on 
Christ's feeding the multitudes with a few small 
loaves and fishes illustrates the manner of her spirit- 
ual awakening. She says: "This was among the 
first, if not the very first, of those sermons which 
came to me like a revelation. The idea of that ser- 
mon was something like this: The work of God's 
ministers was to stand before the people and to carry 
to them constantly the bread of life received directly 
from God himself. Hitherto the miracle of the 
bread and fishes had been to me only a stumbling- 



A SCIENTIST'S CONVERSION 250 

block; I could not explain it, I did not believe it, 
and there it ended. Here was a new idea; the story 
meant something quite different from the mere satis- 
fying of physical needs — the spiritual hunger was 
thus to be satisfied; and in the prayer that followed 
I recognized dimly but surely the application of the 
principles brought out in the sermon. Without any 
increase in my belief, with no violence to my intel- 
lectual convictions, a truth of which I had hitherto 
been ignorant was revealed to me, a sense of the real 
meaning of the bread of life." 

Then followed a long, severe struggle with doubt 
and pride. The light came gradually, however, and 
she confesses. "Now everything had changed to me ; 
confession that I wished to believe in Christ as the 
Son of God, admission that I was willing to accept 
this faith as a child must accept it, that it was above 
and beyond the power of all human intellect to 
analyze or explain, but that it was God's free gift to 
all who were willing to take it from his hand in the 
manner which he himself had prescribed — these two 
steps had brought me into the position where God 
could bless me with the consciousness of his presence, 
and from this time forever onward I could know 
him whom to know aright is life eternal/' Again 
she says : "I simply accepted what had come to me 
as coming from God himself, for these two reasons : 
First, the strong sense of God's presence ; second, the 
clearness of spiritual vision which enabled me to see 
and understand how different God*? way for me to 



260 DATA OF CHEISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

come into the Kingdom was from the way I had 
chosen for myself." 

There was much delay, however, and continued 
struggles before the decisive step was taken. "I was 
coming in exactly the order indicated by the expres- 
sion in the sermon before quoted : I believed neither 
the Old Testament nor the New, nor even in the 
divinity of Christ, in the sense in which I now do; 
I had taken only the first step, belief in prayer, be- 
lief that God was leading me through his Spirit ; the 
rest was coming to me more slowly, but none the less 
surely. I asked, among other questions, with how 
little belief I might dare to come into the church. 
The story of the birth and death of Christ and of 
his resurrection — must I be able to say I had a clear, 
intelligent conception of these things? Only a few 
facts were made the basis of my faith. Did I believe 
that it was really God's hand that was leading me? 
Of this I felt no more doubt than of the evidence of 
my senses. Then a few steps at a time in obedience 
to his will, and the rest would come to me. This is 
about what was said to me regarding the mere mat- 
ter of my belief." 

God and Christ were revealed to her: "I believed 
in God because he had revealed himself to me; in 
Christ, for the same reason. Therefore, Christ was 
now living, and he must have been raised from the 
dead in some form, as the story of his death is un- 
questionable. The miracles I did not attempt to ex- 
plain, but held fast to my belief and trust in what 



A SCIENTIST'S CONVEESION 261 

had been so clearly revealed to me, and which con- 
tinued real to me through my prayers." 

This scientist attained complete peace in God 
through Christ, and united with the Fifth Avenue 
Baptist Church of New York City. Regarding mira- 
cles she says: "The belief in miracles is apparently 
at variance with the principles of science, and raises 
many difficult questions. For an answer to this, I 
make use of the same key: 'I bow before the mys- 
tery concealed in a bit of living protoplasm/ It is 
for me no harder to acknowledge my total inability 
to explain the meaning of some of the miracles, than 
to acknowledge my inability to answer the apparently 
simple and direct questions of science. Moreover, I 
know not how far some of the miracles are to be 
taken as literal facts, and how far as allegorical rep- 
resentations. But the Bible is to me no longer a 
sealed book, though still one with many mysteries. I 
believe that the more clearly and fully I am able to 
understand the one great mystery, our personal rela- 
tion to Christ and through him to the Father, the 
more clearly I shall be able to comprehend the ques- 
tions which necessarily cluster around this relation." 
The following words written to her pastor indicate 
something of the wonder and joy and fullness of as- 
surance which were hers: "I wish I could give to 
you some of that rich blessing that makes my cup 
running over, the blessing of God's loving presence 
with me, the consciousness of it when I lie down to 
sleep and when I wake. A few years ago it was all 



262 DATA OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

incredible to me. How can you or I ever doubt the 
power of God working among us and through his 
children? When I look back to those years it seems 
to me no greater miracle ever happened than the 
change in my heart. I know that you are more used 
to such miracles than I, but I am sure you cannot be 
so familiar with them that they do not fill your 
soul with joy." 

Eev. W. H. P. Faunce, D.D., now President of 
Brown University, whose ministry guided her in her 
intellectual struggles, says in a brief introduction to 
the pamphlet containing the story from which the 
above extracts are taken: "Just as she wrote it, let 
it stand — the clear testimony of one abreast of mod- 
ern knowledge, thoroughly versed in the scientific 
method, deeply convinced of the reality of Christian 
faith. Such witness is worth volumes of argument. 
Our generation is turning wearily away from specu- 
lative discussion, and listening eagerly for the pres- 
ent witness of a present God. 'We speak that we do 
know, and testify that we have seen/ " 15 

In conclusion it remains only to observe that the 
foregoing examples, taken from a period of nearly 
two thousand years, and striking every leading note 
in the pain and ecstacy of the soul's return to God, 
exhibit at once the variety and unity which are such 
distinguishing features of the religious experience of 
which Christ is the center. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

Having set forth in the last chapter some of the 
data of Christian experience, it is next in order to 
study this experience by means of analysis, by con- 
sidering it in the elements, which together constitute 
the whole. Thus we shall gain a view of its value 
as an evidence of Christianity. But before we come 
to this task several remarks need to be made. 

259. The reader has doubtless noted that the ex- 
amples of experience we have given are somewhat 
uniform in character. They belong to one general 
type. At first this may seem a weakness and an at- 
tempt to "make up" a case, so to speak. Then, too, 
it may be considered unscientific. Why not give all 
varieties of religious experience instead of those of a 
particular type, it may be asked. But as soon as the 
nature of the proposed argument is understood 
neither of the above objections will stand. The ex- 
amples of Christian experience which have been given 
are held to be distinctive and characteristic Christian 
types. The existence of other types is not denied, 
but the present assumption is that these are deviations 
from the ideal. They are fragments or parts of a 
religious experience — broken lights, so to speak — 

263 



264 ANALYSIS OF CHEISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

which are only found combined into a perfect whole 
in the distinctive Christian experience. It is claimed 
that the method pursued here is scientific. It is a 
study of facts. The careful and accurate analysis 
and interpretation of facts are a part of the process. 
All inferences and conclusions are based on the facts 
thus studied. 

260. That we are moving in a realm of facts in 
studying Christian experience is a point requiring 
emphasis. Doctrines inevitably grow out of the facts 
of experience and some of them are involved directly 
in experience. Of course, also ideas are necessary in 
grasping the meaning of facts. But here we are 
dealing with a realm primarily not of ideas or doc- 
trines but of facts. The Christian has an experi- 
ence, as he believes, not merely of thoughts but of 
objects, and knows himself in relation to those ob- 
jects. The fact that these realities which enter into 
his experience are spiritual, renders them no less 
but rather more real. Professor James, speaking of 
the unseen world, says: "So far as our ideal im- 
pulses originate in this region we belong to it in a 
more intimate sense than that in which we belong 
to the visible world, for we belong in the most inti- 
mate sense wherever our ideals belong." 1 Of course, 
we must not prejudge the question as to what these 
spiritual realities are in themselves. We are to study 
the evidence and conclude according to it. 

261. Knowledge of the spiritual realities comes to 
us in much the same way as ordinary knowledge. 



EXPERIENCE AN ORDER OF FACTS 265 

As sound reaches us from external objects through 
the auditory and vision through the optic nerve, so 
knowledge of spiritual being external to us comes 
through our spiritual susceptibilities, through intel- 
lect, conscience, fellings and will. The only require- 
ment in the case of sense or spiritual impressions 
is that we shall have capacities for and correspond- 
ences with objects external to ourselves. One chief 
difference in the two kinds of impressions is that 
those which are spiritual affect our entire nature, 
moral, religious and intellectual, while sense impres- 
sions may affect the knowing faculty alone. 

262. Even those who have not the inner experi- 
ence of the Christian life should study it as an order 
of facts in the experience of others. This order of 
facts is as open to scientific investigation as any 
other. As Professor Romanes said, we may study 
it as a "phenomenon" erven if we may not as a 
"noumenon." 2 If not presented to us within our own 
natures it is presented without in the lives of others. 
Material nature is not studied from within but only 
from without, and science is based on such study. 
The highest Christian certainty, it is true, comes only 
through the two-fold method. When it thus comes 
it is the highest of all certainties. We know most 
indubitably the things of which we ourselves are 
conscious. Nevertheless a relative and real certainty 
as to the causes and results of Christian experience 
ought to be possible without the inner experience. 
Science takes note of "coexistences" and "sequences ;" 



2G6 ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

that is, things which happen together and things 
which follow each other. But it does not stop there. 
Science generalizes about observed facts. Professor 
G. A. Coe, after referring to the fact that science does 
not assume or deny the presence of God in nature, 
remarks that to look for uniformities in religious 
facts "is simply to assume that religious experiences 
are not a chaotic mass in which consequents have no 
respect for antecedents/' 3 

.263. What, then, is Christian experience? It is 
the state or condition produced in the mental, moral 
and spiritual nature of man when he conforms to 
'the conditions which Christianity declares to be 
necessary to union and fellowship with God. To ex- 
perience is to learn by "practical trial or proof;" 
"to try or prove by use, by suffering, or enjoyment." 
"Christian experience," says President C. Cuthbert 
Hall, "represents the religious value of Christianity 
for one who believes it . . . ; its contribution 
to the completeness of his life in the present world 
. the measure in which it makes life in the 
present world more worth living." 4 Christian ex- 
perience covers the entire Christian life and not mere- 
ly the initial act of conversion. It includes the opera- 
tion in the Christian of all the incentives to activity 
and spiritual growth, the consolations in sorrow, the 
motives which lead to the broadening and deepening 
of the spiritual life, and the hopes for the future 
which flow from the peculiarly Christian mode of 
regarding life and the world. 



THE INITIAL STAGE 267 

264. What, then, is the initial stage of Christian 
experience? How does it begin? Some writers en- 
deavor to fix upon one significant phase of the ex- 
perience and make this the essence of the change. 
One author makes the primary act of Christian ex- 
perience the choice of duty as such. 5 Another says 
it consists of (a) an uneasiness, or sense of some- 
thing wrong with us as we naturally stand, and (b) 
a solution, a sense that we are saved from the wrong- 
ness by making connection with the higher powers. 6 
But neither of these statements is adequate. The 
more approved and satisfactory way of studying the 
human mind is to take as the unit of consciousness 
not a single thought, feeling or volition, but rather 
all the thoughts, feelings and volitions present at any 
given moment in consciousness. If, then, we can 
look into the crystal stream of consciousness at some 
one moment and mark all its contents we reach the 
unit of measurement, so to speak. The first stage 
of Christian experience is the new birth, or, in popu- 
lar language, conversion. The examples we have 
already given will serve as material for our study. 
Let us then make the plunge into the depths of 
Christian consciousness at the moment when the soul 
has passed through the great change. No two ex- 
periences will be identical. In some the emotions, 
in others the intellect, in yet others the will or the 
conscience will seem to predominate. But in all, the 
essential factors will be present. To some the change 



268 ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

will have come suddenly, while to others it will have 
resulted from a long period of preparation. 

265. As we look within the consciousness of the 
regenerated soul the first and most noteworthy dis- 
covery we make is a surrendered will. The will was 
the last faculty to yield, but most important of all. 
It is the imperial faculty of our nature and leads all 
the others. This act of the will was preceded by re- 
flection. The intellect considered the message which 
had reached it through preaching or personal in- 
fluence or reading. There were in many cases per- 
plexity and doubt. This activity of thought, how- 
ever, was due to an awakened moral sense, which took 
the form of self-condemnation, or a longing for a 
higher ideal or simply an "uneasiness," as Professor 
James states it. 

Doubtless if we should trace the soul state we are 
studying to its beginning we would find that the con- 
science or moral faculty took the initiative. The in- 
tellect was thus aroused, and the will at length 
yielded. We described this act of the will as a sur- 
render. This, however, is only a part of the truth. 
It was also a choice. The one act of the will which 
is the very essence of the spiritual change on the 
human side consists, in the language of the New 
Testament, of repentance and faith. Eepentance is 
the change of mind towards and repudiation of the 
wrongness of the life. Faith is the act of the will 
by which an active trust is reposed in Another. 

266. So far we have seen the soul itself in action 



EESULTS, RELIGIOUS AND MOEAL 269 

in the great initial movement in Christian experi- 
ence. We have, however, only half analyzed the state 
of the soul. The soul by the act of the will already 
described commits itself to Another. The most sig- 
nificant element in this Christian experience is that 
there is a consciousness in it not only of an I, but 
also of a Thou. The other Person whom the soul is 
conscious of trusting is Jesus Christ. The statement 
was made on a preceding page that the Christian ex- 
perience deals not merely with thoughts, but with 
realities. The great Eeality of Christian experience 
is Jesus the Christ, through the Holy Spirit. More 
will be said later about this indwelling of Christ 
through the Spirit. For the present what it means 
is, of course, not the physical body of Christ but the 
recreation in Christian character of the moral image 
of Christ as that image appears in the records of his 
historic manifestation. 

267. In the next place it is necessary to note the 
results in experience of the act of faith and the en- 
trance into our consciousness of another Person. 
These results may be set forth as religious, moral and 
intellectual. The result in the religious direction is 
"adjustment with the higher powers." "The peace 
of God which passeth all understanding" enters and 
possesses the soul. "Being therefore justified by faith 
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ" (Rom. v. 1). "The love of God hath been 
shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit 
which was given unto us" (Rom. v. 5). Forgive- 



270 ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

ness, reconciliation and a sense of fellowship with 
God, the total religions need of man is met and pro- 
vided for in Christian experience. 

268. Closely related to the religious are the moral 
results of the experience. The first to be named is 
the new ethical ideal. A passion for righteousness 
is not an abstract but a concrete one, even Christ 
marks the believer's whole bearing. But this ideal 
himself. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it 
is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me : and 
that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, 
the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me 
and gave himself up for me" (Gal. ii. 20) is the 
exclamation of the apostle of the Gentiles. "I count 
all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowl- 
edge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Phil. iii. 8). 

But there is more than a new ethical ideal; there 
is also ethical reinforcement. New life comes, new 
power and an ability to achieve in the moral realm. 
The man is lifted to a new moral level. That is, the 
man has experienced redemption, deliverance from 
sin. Nothing is more real to him than his sense, in 
every part of his being, of freedom, emancipation 
from shackles which bound the soul. At first this 
new moral level is not necessarily a higher one ex- 
ternally than any non-Christian life, but higher for 
him. The real difference is internal. His morality 
is not conventional but vital, with capacity for in- 
definite growth. Thousands of Christians testify that 
the tonic to the will which comes with conversion is 



INTELLECTUAL SATISFACTION 271 

the most astounding fact of all. This is peculiarly 
a mark of Christian experience. The other element 
in the moral change to be named is love. Love to 
God and love to man to the extent of forgiving ene- 
mies, returning good for evil and enduring all things, 
even death itself for Christ and fellowmen, are dis- 
tinctive Christian traits. These are not, of course, 
perfectly realized but are present as ideals. 

269. There is also an intellectual result. The 
chief thing to be noted here is intellectual satisfac- 
tion. This does not mean that all mysteries are 
cleared up. Speculative and even doctrinal difficulties 
remain often, but they no longer seem relevant. The 
scientist, it will be remembered, stumbled over the 
doctrine of Christ's resurrection, but after her con- 
version it ceased to harass her. The explanation of 
this result of experience has already been intimated. 
It is not a repudiation of the intellect or abdication 
of reason. Conviction ineradicable arises in the spirit- 
ual realm just as in the physical. "That which we 
have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld and 
our hands handled concerning the Word of Life" 
(1 John i. 1) brings the mind to a state of rest. 

270. Arguments, reasonings, are in one realm. 
Objects, facts, things, are in another. The realm 
of experience is the realm of objects, facts, things. 
Mystery remains behind these spiritual objects and 
facts to be gradually cleared away, but the facts and 
objects are the most stable of realities. The searcher 
finds truth when he finds Christ; afterwards his 



272 ANALYSIS OF CHBISTIAN EXPEEIENCE 

search for truth is into the meaning of Christ. This 
is the deeply significant message for men troubled 
with intellectual difficulties about the faith of the 
Gospel. Do not confine your approach to the thought- 
side of Christianity; approach it on the fact-side. 
This is the scientific method of approach. The case 
against Christianity is due chiefly to the unscientific 
way doubters and deniers approach it. Science scorns 
the a priori way of deciding questions, the way which 
says it must be thus or thus, instead of making the 
experiment. 

271. Faith is not the antithesis of thought, but 
only of sight. Faith is an act of the will relating you 
to new realities, new objects. Act as if the invisible 
Christ were present and accessible, and you will not 
be met by vacancy. He will respond and make mani- 
fest his response to you. The books on psychology 
have a familiar experiment to show that we all have 
a "blind spot." Hold a white piece of cardboard 
with certain black marks upon it before the eyes at a 
certain distance. Move it back and forth and up and 
down, and when one of the black marks reaches a par- 
ticular point it will suddenly vanish. This somewhat 
startling result can easily be verified by any one. 
Now the message of Christian experience is of a like 
nature. It says relate your mental and moral nature 
to Christ in a given way and you will discover that 
you have not a "blind spot" but a "seeing spot," that 
the soul may thus come into connection with a new 



ESSENTIALS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 273 

object which to it is as real and as convincing as the 
experiment with the cardboard. 

You are not asked to give up your reason by 
Christianity, but only to let it have the benefit of a 
moral renewal through the apprehension of a world of 
spiritual realities. The only assumption underlying 
this invitation is that the moral cleansing will not 
vitiate the processes of the mind. A man will not 
think any less clearly because he has a pure heart. 

272. Such, then, is Christian experience in its 
initial stage. These are the objects which appear as 
we gaze into the clear stream of consciousness. The 
"new birth," or the "birth from above," is the New 
Testament designation of the experience. The aim 
has been not to deny or disparage forms of conversion 
which are unlike those made use of. Human hearts 
take hold of the religious life from many sides. The 
aim has been to indicate the essential elements in 
Christian experience. These are: (1) The act of the 
will involved in repentance and faith; (2) the object 
of faith, God as revealed in Jesus Christ, who is in- 
wardly made known to the believer through the Holy 
Spirit; (3) the results in religious readjustment, 
moral reinforcement and intellectual peace. All these 
elements are not equally present in all experiences. 
Some elements seem to be not consciously present at 
all in some conversions. But notwithstanding these 
facts it is claimed that conversion as thus analyzed 
is the great generic type and norm of religious experi- 
ence. All other genuine types can be explained and 



274 ANALYSIS OF CHKISTIAN EXPEKIENCE 

are perfected by this normal type. They are the 
imperfect instances of the experience which it alone 
perfectly embodies. It is the genus and the others 
are varieties. If it be denied, then it remains that 
conversion as we have described it is itself a great 
phenomenon of Christian history and as such is 
worthy of study. From it alone without other aid 
the Christian contention can be established. If this 
be established other claims cease to be pertinent or 
relevant. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

273. It is next in order to answer an important 
question. "You have not proved that Christ and 
God are in the consciousness in religious experience," 
it may be urged. "You do not know that the experi- 
ence is not wholly subjective, a product of your own 
fancy. What evidence have you that a divine Being 
meets you and communes with you? Particularly 
how do you know that Christ as the Kevealer of the 
Father enters into consciousness through the Holy 
Spirit?" In reply it will not be attempted here to 
prove the essential relations in the Godhead from 
experience alone. The formal doctrine of the Trinity 
belongs to the thought-side of Christianity rather 
than to the realm of experience, and can be left to 
systematic theology. Nevertheless there is an experi- 
ential basis for the doctrine which will appear as we 
proceed, and the Scriptures complete it. Experience, 
however, does teach that the change wrought in re- 
ligious experience proceeds from a power external to 
man, which is personal and which belongs to a 
higher order of being than man himself. The argu- 
ment follows: 

274. The first step towards the proof is a fact 

175 



276 EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

of our own consciousness. The fact is this: When- 
ever we are aware of the presence of an external ob- 
ject through the evidences of our senses we know it 
in the same act and at the same moment as both 
within and without consciousness. The tree that I 
look at through my study window is present within 
as an image on the retina of my eye and thus reaches 
my knowing faculty. I know it thus within. But in 
the same act of perception I know it as apart from 
and outside of me. It is "given" to me as within and 
without in the same act. In the same way I know 
spiritual results in my consciousness. A power enters 
the soul at conversion which is new and foreign to 
me. I know it as coming from without and produc- 
ing an effect within at the same moment and in the 
same act. It reinforces my will and lifts me into a 
new sense of power and peace. I do not prove by 
argument to myself that it is external to me while 
producing an effect within me, just as I do not argue 
to prove the existence of the tree outside my win- 
dow. 

275. But let us be careful here. Modern scientific 
psychology is delving into the depths of Christian ex- 
perience and is destined to render great service to 
Christianity when it thinks its problems through a lit- 
the more thoroughly. It is moving towards the Chris- 
tian point of view rapidly, in its best representatives. 
Psychology connects all mind states with brain states. 
Every thought reaches the brain through a sense organ 
— that is, a nerve — and registers itself there, just as a 



THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND 277 

bird flitting past might alight for a moment and 
leave its track in the sand. As our thoughts come 
and go they all leave their tracks in our brain sub- 
stance through the nerves. One set of thoughts 
crowds the preceding set into the background and the 
first set drops out of consciousness. But these van- 
ishing thoughts are not annihilated. They are simply 
stored away in the subconscious mind, which Professor 
James thinks is the greatest discovery of recent 
psychology. That is, they are registered on the brain 
ready to be excited into activity again by the proper 
stimulus. The subconscious mind then is a sort of 
back room of the intellect, where we keep all our 
stores of knowledge. But the conscious is always in 
communication with the subconscious mind. The in- 
tellectual front room opens into the back room. 

Now the psychology oi religion is telling us with 
much insistence that religious experience is closely 
connected with changes in the back room of the in- 
tellect. When religious influences stir our emotional, 
mental, moral or volitional nature, and a struggle 
ensues, there is an agitation in the subconscious region 
of the mind, and past thoughts, aspirations, hopes 
and fears form a sort of new combination, resulting 
in a new moral purpose. When the feelings become 
strong enough there is an "explosion," so to speak, 
from the back room into the front room of the mind, 
resulting in conversion, with its new peace and joy 
and moral purpose. This, I say, is the way many 
psychologists explain conversion. 



278 EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

276. Psychologists of religious experience do not 
necessarily deny the supernatural in conversion; in- 
deed, some of them admit it. The subconscious mind 
they think has a back door itself through which the 
supernatural enters. The tendency, however, of the 
above theory when unqualified by other things is, at 
first sight, to leave the problem of the cause behind 
experience unsolved. The power seems to come from 
without, because it rushes in from the back room of 
the mind. Some psychologists leave the matter open 
or assert that only natural causes in our past ex- 
perience produce the result. Nothing came from 
without. Everything, they assert, came from the sub- 
conscious mind. 

277. But if psychology raises a difficulty it also 
furnishes the basis for an answer. It teaches that 
every mind-state was preceded or is attended by a 
brain-state. But in conversion things absolutely new 
enter consciousness. We can, indeed, analyze all 
ordinary mind-states into the results of present or 
past sense impressions, tracks left on the sands of 
memory by the birds of sensation and of thought. In 
remembered dreams even we can discover always the 
elements in past experience. The combination may 
be new, but the elements are old. In conversion, on 
the contrary, factors enter experience which were 
never there before. The personal presence of the 
Other is one of these. The moral direction of life 
also is reversed. It is in many cases in the teeth of 
the whole past tendency of the life. A moral elevation 



MIND STATES AND BEAIN STATES 279 

and motive are attained unlike any faintest imagining 
of the past; indeed, sometimes nullifying and revers- 
ing distinct life-principles previously held. Witness 
the apostle Paul, and many others. No combination 
of past tendencies can transform a vile sinner sud- 
denly into a saint. No union of shadows can ever 
produce sunshine. The stream of consciousness flow- 
ing downhill morally for life is not suddenly set to 
flowing uphill by a chance combination of memories. 
The Mississippi river was never known to start per- 
manently to flowing northwardly by a sudden con- 
fluence of eddies. The point here is not a denial of 
all connection between the new element which enters 
experience and previous mental states, or the asser- 
tion that this new element breaks in with violence 
and overrides the will. The point is rather this, that 
however it may enter and whatever previous factor 
of experience it may employ in so doing, this new 
factor in itself is recognized as new to experience. 
It is this irreducible difference between conversion 
and other experiences which is leading the psycholo- 
gists to modify the general theory at least sufficiently 
to admit a supernatural element in conversion. 

278. But the Christian is not confined to his ex- 
periences in conversion for evidence. After conversion 
the experience continues. He has direct relations 
with the Power. He is visited by it and often by 
conscious act enters into relations with it. So that 
he has repeated proofs that the original act of con- 
version was indeed due to a Power apart from and 



280 EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

above him. Above him, I say; for it could not have 
proceeded from the society of men. No observation 
and no science reveals to him anything among men 
capable of working in the manner and producing the 
results of his new birth. 

279. But is this power from without a person as 
well? If so, is it Jesus Christ? Professor William 
James does not concede the evangelical claim that 
Christ is the author of religious experience, but he 
has been much impressed with the personal form it 
takes. He says that personality is the pivot round 
which the religious life revolves. "Religious thought 
is carried on in terms of personality, this being in 
the world of religion the one fundamental fact. To- 
day, quite as much as in any previous age, the re- 
ligious individual tells you that the divine meets him 
on the basis of his personal concerns." 1 Taking Pro- 
fessor James' statement that religious experience is 
first an "uneasiness," due to a sense of something 
wrong, and then a "solution" through adjustment 
with the higher powers, let us see how the adjustment 
with the higher powers works practically. 

280. (1) The results produced in us by the ad- 
justment with the higher powers are all personal. 
They are results in intellect, conscience, feelings and 
will. Try to think of the "higher powers" as imper- 
sonal. Suppose them to be merely forces or laws, or 
the abstract universal principle of pantheism. How 
then can a mere impersonal force illumine an intel- 
lect? How can an abstract principle vary its form 



PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS INVOLVED 281 

in consciousness so that now it is reinforcement to a 
feeble will, now truth shining into the mind, now 
again moral light in the conscience, and at another 
time or the same time excitement to the emotions. 
There is no known principle by which we can thus 
make the transition from the impersonal to the per- 
sonal. The Hindu philosophy holds that personality 
is illusion and that man's true destiny is its extinc- 
tion or reabsorption in the infinite impersonal All. 
This is the only consistent position for those who 
deny that the "powers" that work in men in religious 
experience are personal. But, as Professor James 
says, the religious phenomenon is personal and it can- 
not be successfully carried on otherwise. 

281. (2) Again, the response which comes from 
the higher powers takes the form of personal relation- 
ships. Forgiveness involves personal relations. Mere 
law or force cannot forgive. Pardon cannot be 
thought of except in personal terms. The operations 
of conscience imply personal relations. The sense of 
responsibility is inexplicable otherwise. The sense 
of sonship and Fatherhood which are at the heart of 
Christian consciousness, of course, cannot be thought 
of save in terms of personality. We have the spirit 
of adoption whereby we cry "Abba, Father," which is 
the New Testament expression for the form our re- 
ligious experience takes. And so it appears that to 
empty religious experience of those elements which 
require personal relations for their expression is 
virtually to empty it of everything. 



282 EVIDENCE OF CHEISTIAN EXPEEIENCE 

282. (3) Still, further, the Christian recognizes 
plan in his life. "A labour working to an end" 
through means and forces beyond his control becomes 
manifest as the years pass. He himself is the sub- 
ject of this working. Such intelligence and power 
as belong to personality alone account for this ex- 
ternal unifying, purposive force presiding over and 
controlling his destiny. 

283. (4) We have already seen in a previous chap- 
ter that Christ constantly offered himself as the ob- 
ject of religious faith to men. Let us briefly review 
his own claim and the terms in which he defines re- 
ligious experience. (1) His claim is to the allegiance 
of all men to himself as the Revealer of God. "Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden . . . 
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me" (Matt. xi. 
29, 30). He proclaims himself as the future judge of 
men (Matt. xxv. 31-46). "Follow me" was his con- 
stant invitation and command (Matt. xix. 21). (2) 
Christ denned religious experience in terms of him- 
self, (a) Its condition was faith in him. "He that 
believeth on the Son hath eternal life; he that obeyeth 
not the Son shall not see life" (John iii. 36 ; Matt, 
xviii. 5, 6). (b) Christ was the inner structural law 
of experience. Conformity to his image summed it 
up. "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, 
ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you" 
(John xv. 7). This is echoed in Paul's experience: 
"To me to live is Christ" (Phil. i. 21). (c) Christ 
is the organic social law of Christianity. A religous 



CHRIST MEETS PERSONAL CRAVING 283 

society, the church, is to find its bond of unity in him. 
Personal faith in him was the condition of member- 
ship in it. After Peter's confession of faith he said : 
"Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my 
church" (Matt. xvi. 18). (d) In the historical de- 
velopment of Christianity, amid opposition, Christ 
was its source of triumph. "In the world ye have 
tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome 
the world" (John xvi. 33). (e) He is also its law 
and life in its gradual development and ultimate tri- 
umph (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20). We might indefinitely 
multiply proof texts in support of these points, but 
it is unnecessary. 

284. (5) Now we have in Christ the complete an- 
swer to the personal craving which runs through re- 
ligious experience. He makes visible the unseen God, 
and meets the heart of man in its yearning for for- 
giveness, fellowship, power and redemption. He ex- 
plains personality and interprets it for man on the 
human and divine side, showing man's likeness to 
God and his immortality. How, then, does the ad- 
justment with the higher powers work practically 
when it is mediated through Christ? The answer is 
that the most definite and satisfying response comes 
thus and only thus. The answer of the soul to Christ 
is the same as the answer of the soul to God. He 
acts upon the soul as God and produces the proper 
effect in it of God's action. "The Christian submits 
himself to God in Christ and then something wonder- 
ful occurs. His trust is not met by silence, vacancy 



284 EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

and irresponsiveness, plunging him into the despair of 
those who worshipped the dumb idols of heathenism ; 
but to his humble submission a truly divine answer 
is given. From Christ he actually receives those gifts 
which he refers and must refer to God, the forgiveness 
of his sins and the sanctification of his soul." 2 

285. To the man thus yielding himself to Christ 
there are certain things which are known directly as 
we know all things of which we ourselves are con- 
scious. For one thing he knows that Christ fur- 
nished the motives and incentives to his action. 
Christ also furnished the aim and ideal which he 
pursues. He knows moreover that what has occurred 
within him was not a form of mental exercise merely, 
but a transaction between persons. The repulsion 
which he first felt and the attraction which followed 
were both personal. The simplest man who thinks at 
all knows the difference, in the effect produced upon 
him, between an idea and a person. They are diverse 
kinds of experience, which should not be confounded. 
If, therefore, in the exercise of repentance and faith 
a face answers my face, a heart responds to my heart, 
and I am acted on from without in personal ways, 
I have, for me at least, irrefutable evidence of the 
objective existence of the Person so moving me. When 
to this personal experience I add that of tens of thou- 
sands of living Christians, and an unbroken line of 
them back to Christ, and when I find in the New 
Testament a manifold record of like experiences, to- 
gether with a clear account of the origin and cause 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE 285 

of them all, my certainty becomes absolute. One of 
the most urgent of all duties resting upon modern 
Christians is to assert with clearness and vigor the 
certainties of Christian experience. The relaxed 
strings of the harp of faith, due to agnostic and other 
influences, can only thus be keyed once more to con- 
cert pitch and Christianity again assert its proper 
power in the world. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE VERIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

286. In scientific research verification is the proc- 
ess by which a conclusion reached or a hypothesis 
formed is confirmed by additional facts, experiments 
or arguments. "Verification is not a distinct mode 
of proof, but is simply a confirmation of one proof 
by another, sometimes of a deduction by an induction, 
sometimes of an induction by a deduction, and, finally, 
sometimes of one induction or deduction by an- 
other." 1 The proof for a conclusion may be convinc- 
ing without verification. Where it can be employed, 
however, verification often strengthens a position 
greatly. 

Verification, of course, conforms to the nature of 
the subject under investigation. Social and political 
science cannot employ the methods of verification 
available for physical science. The data of rhose 
sciences cannot be measured and weighed by yard- 
sticks and scales, or placed in exhausted receivers, 
or subjected to the action of chemical forces. So in 
religious experience verification must of necessity 
conform to the nature of the subject. 

The conclusion at which we have arrived is that the 
religious experience known as the new birth is the 

286 



VERIFICATION DEFINED 287 

product of supernatural forces; that these forces are 
personal ; that Jesus Christ as the Kevealer of God to 
men actually works the change within man's nature; 
and that the inner power and witness which he em- 
ploys for this purpose is the Holy Spirit of God. It is 
now proposed to indicate how this conclusion is veri- 
fied, or how the initial experience of the Christian is 
confirmed. This confirmation will in large measure 
consist of further experiences, rich and manifold in 
character. We shall still move in the realm of facts 
and things and not merely in the realm of thoughts 
and arguments. It will be noted also that the veri- 
fication will not apply equally in every instance to all 
parts of Christian experience. Sometimes the con- 
firmation will refer to the new birth itself, at others 
to the divine forces which produce it, and sometimes 
to all these aspects together. 

287. (1) In the first place, then, let us note the 
verification of Christian experience through the prin- 
ciple of contrast. Contrast is a fundamental law of 
knowledge. It is change from one state of conscious- 
ness to another which enables us to know. Professor 
John Fiske writes : "It is an undeniable fact that we 
cannot know anything whatever except as contrasted 
with something else. The contrast may be bold or 
sharp, or it may dwindle into a slight discrimination, 
but it must be there. . . . It is not a superficial 
but a fundamental truth that if there were no color 
but red it would be exactly the same thing as if there 
were no color at all. ... If our ears were to be 



288 .VERIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

filled with one monotonous roar of Niagara, unbroken 
by alien sounds, the effect upon consciousness would 
be absolute silence." 2 We are not obliged to adopt Mr. 
Fiske's theory of evil winch he develops from this 
principle of contrast, but the principle itself may be 
applied to the verification of the evidence of Christian 
experience. 

Now in conversion one of the most radical and 
striking contrasts is introduced into experience. It is 
unnecessary to attempt to state exhaustively the con- 
tents of the experience. But some of them we name. 
The total past life with its moral direction is con- 
trasted with the present with its opposite direction. 
It includes a contrast of present love for God and 
men wjth a past indifference or even hate; a past 
disturbed and burdened conscience with a present 
sense of relief, peace and joy; a past sense of bondage 
with a present sense of freedom; a past sense of weak- 
ness with a present sense of power. Of course, the 
ideal is not yet realized, but there is a contrast of the 
carnal with the spiritual natures. There is a sharp 
inner struggle between them. It is not a new per- 
sonality which has taken the place of the old, but the 
center of the life has been shifted so completely that 
it is in a new kingdom altogether. The whole nature, 
intellect, conscience, feelings and will share this sense 
of contrast. Old things are passed away, all things 
have become new. This was Paul's way of stating 
the experience. Individuality, of course, determines 
the points where the contrasts are sharpest. Children 



VERIFICATION BY CONTRAST 289 

converts and converts who were gradually prepared for 
the change feel the contrasts just as others do, though 
with varying degrees of intensity. For the opposing 
principle of evil works all about them in society and 
they react against it there as well as within. 

This contrast in experience is not an instance of 
those experiences where "extremes meet/' as we say, 
where one emotional state is followed quickly by its 
opposite through nervous reaction. Nor is it an in- 
stance of contrast between merely natural growth 
from a lower to a higher stage. Because the believer 
is himself familiar with all these forms of contrast. 
He has had experience of them all, and he knows his 
religious experience is unique. The life prior to con- 
version had no seeds or germs which unaided could 
have produced the result by natural growth. Some- 
times, indeed, at that time he committed himself to 
a higher moral ideal in his own strength, but 
failed. His utter inability to attain the moral 
and spiritual plane which he now exultantly oc- 
cupies was as much a matter of past conscious- 
ness with him as any experience of his life. Frank 
says, speaking of this change, that the Chris- 
tian "who has experienced regeneration and conver- 
sion is absolutely and without exception conscious 
that it is the opposite of natural development; and 
if before his conversion he may have supposed him- 
self capable of effecting this transformation, yet as 
soon as conversion takes place the fact is present to 
his consciousness, that the result has neither pro- 



290 VERIFICATION OF christian experience. 

ceeded from him nor could do so." 3 These state- 
ments are substantially true, whether all converts, 
without exception, are able to give so rational an 
account of experience at first or not. The evidential 
value of this experience of contrast, being rooted in a 
fundamental law of knowledge, is very great. It is 
great as to the change itself. The pre- and post- 
conversion states are so sharply distinguished at every 
point that no shadow of doubt is felt as to the reality 
of the change. It is also convincing as to the cause. 
For the absence before and the presence after regen- 
eration of a new spiritual causal agency at work in the 
soul is no less marked a contrast. 

288. (2) Observe next that Christian experience 
is verified through reflection. Christian mysticism 
differs from all other forms of mysticism in this 
chiefly, that it can give an intelligible account of 
itself. The peril of mysticism usually is its vague- 
ness, its tendency to slip its tether and soar into 
the realm of cloudland. Christian mysticism is solidly 
based on facts rationally grasped and reduced to an 
ordered system. Vindicating himself from the charge 
of fanaticism, the apostle Paul distinctly repudiated 
the charge that he was living a merely emotional life 
of alleged communion with the unknown world of 
spirit. "Because we thus judge that one died for 
all, therefore all died ; and he died for all that they 
which live should no longer live unto themselves, but 
unto him who for their sakes died and rose again" 
(2 Cor. v. 14, 15). The point of his plea was that 



MAKES FORGIVENESS REASONABLE 291 

he was not "beside himself/' but his life was based 
on a judgment, which itself in turn was grounded 
in historical facts, and facts of experience. 

289. A few points only can be suggested at which 
reflection verifies Christian experience, clarifies and 
confirms it. The first to be named is that it makes 
reasonable the idea of the forgiveness of sin. There 
is no fact recorded in all the history of Christian 
experience more undeniable than the conviction for 
sin, including a sense of self-condemnation and re- 
jection by God. Under the lash of conscience thousands 
have been plunged in despair. To them it seemed 
incredible that God could forgive. His holy char- 
acter over against their guilt left an impassable gulf 
between. The atonement wrought by Christ has been 
the only source of relief, and thousands have en- 
tered into peace through that "finished work." We 
need not here discuss the nature of the atonement. 
The fact of experience is all we need to urge, and 
that fact is that forgiveness is made reasonable only 
by the atonement of Christ. The further remarkable 
fact is to be noted that after Christ's death Judaism 
ceased to offer animal sacrifices, and wherever Chris- 
tianity went these sacrifices ceased. Buddhism, the 
one great religion without animal sacrifices, is also 
without any proper sense of sin. Christianity has 
marvelously deepened the sense of sin and at the 
same time abolished sacrifices of the propitiatory 
kind. 4 

290. Assurance is another phase of Christian ex- 



292 VERIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

perience which illustrates verification through reflec- 
tion. This is closely related to the preceding point. 
Christian assurance of the sane and biblican type is 
a rational rather than an emotional phase of experi- 
ence. Doubts, misgivings, and fears, which so fre- 
quently haunt the early stages of Christian experi- 
ence, are usually due to a failure to grasp the nature 
of the spiritual transaction through which the soul 
has passed. Christ is known, but the method of 
removing guilt, the completeness of the divine pardon, 
the breadth and depth of divine love, are not under- 
stood. The Christian realities are present, but they 
are obscure; a fog surrounds them. As they become 
clear and all becomes reasonable and orderly, the 
earlier experience passes into a distinct stage, accom- 
panied by deepening conviction and growing intensity 
of faith. The fact-side and the thought-side of early 
experience thus join hands and create a double cer- 
tainty. Sometimes, indeed, the thought-side of con- 
rersion is clearly grasped before conversion, but al- 
ways remains unfruitful until the fact-side enters 
experience through the surrender of the will. In 
this case experience verifies thought, and assurance 
marks the beginning of the Christian life. 

291. Reflection also inevitably affects the Chris- 
tian's view as to the creative cause of experience, the 
Person of Christ. Knowing that the initial act of the 
soul was trust in Christ, and knowing that the re- 
sults produced within and progressively realized are 
divine, he cannot fail to form an estimate of the 



EEFLECTION AND THE VIEW OF CHRIST 293 

Christ who thus works within himself and in others 
around him. The type of theology which denies the 
necessity of facing the question as to Christ's Person 
is impossible to Christian experience. It will not do 
to assert simply that Christ has for us the value of 
God and let the matter rest. Whether or not he be 
mere man is not a question which experience can 
evade. The mind simply refuses to stop at this point. 
He who has for man the value of God, and works in 
man and society the works of God, cannot be on the 
same level with man. Christ is crowned thus Lord 
of all by the soul which has known his power in re- 
demption. The moral and spiritual fruits of Christ's 
power are so manifold that the inner world of experi- 
ence is gradually seen to be a system within itself, a 
spiritual cosmos, like external nature, with Christ as 
the center. It is an orderly series of effects which 
have their necessary and corresponding causes. The 
Kingdom of the Spirit thus comes into view. Law 
reigns in this realm as well as elsewhere. The church 
is understood as the creation of his hand and the 
embodiment of his ideal. 

The logic of Athanasius and his friends in the 
great controversy in the early centuries is thus ap- 
preciated. The new spiritual fabric rising above that 
ancient civilization is seen to be a divine product, 
and yet bearing Christ's image in every part. No 
view of his person which made him less than divine 
was adequate; because no cause less than divine was 
equal to the effect. The view passes also once more 



294 VERIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

to the New Testament and finds not the rational 
view of Christ only but the experimental. In those 
early writings again the fact-side and thought-side 
of faith unite and give us the same result. Verifica- 
tion through reflection thus brings us to a consistent 
and unified system of truths, which is the only ade- 
quate explanation of the facts lying at the basis of 
experience. 

292. (3) It is in order next to consider the veri- 
fication of Christian experience in practical life. In 
determining the reality or genuineness of a precious 
stone, a variety of tests might be applied. It might 
be tested by weight or by its degree of hardness, 
or its size, or shape, or its quality when under the 
edge of the cutting instrument, or its reflective 
beauty in the sunlight. Confidence would grow with 
a ratio in accord with the progressive and successful 
application of these tests. So with Christian experi- 
ence. Now, we may assert that Christian experience 
with its meanings as previously outlined is the work- 
ing theory of practical life. One of the most con- 
clusive of all tests is its workableness. The nature 
of the case prevents more than a brief presentation 
of this phase of our subject. 

293. (a) For one thing we must repeat what 
has frequently been implied or declared before. 
Christian experience actually raises to a higher plane 
of moral power and attainment. An instance of the 
most prcatical kind is in point. A redeemed drunkard, 
with vivid memory of past hopeless struggles and 



ENDUBING LIFE'S ILLS 295 

new sense of power through Christ, was replying to 
the charge that "his religion was a delusion." Ho 
said: "Thank God for the delusion; it has put 
clothes on my children and shoes on their feet and 
bread in their mouths. It has made a man of me and 
it has put joy and peace in my home, which had been 
a hell. If this is a delusion, may God send it to 
the slaves of drink everywhere, for their slavery is 
an awful reality." 

294. (b) Again, Christian experience enables its 
subject to rise above the ills of life. This is an 
intensely practical test. I do not here dwell upon 
the heroic aspects of Christian endurance amid per- 
secution, though these are as striking and convincing 
in modern life as at any past period. Witness the 
instances among native Christians during the recent 
Boxer uprising in China. Nor do I dwell especially 
upon the Christian theory of evil. This is important 
and is within itself of great interest. I refer rather 
to the practical uses and endurance of evil by Chris- 
tian men and women. It is a fact which cannot 
be gainsaid that thousands of the humblest believers 
in Christ are the most heroic endurers of suffering. 
Sorrow, loss, pain, when working normally with 
irreligious men, produce either a stoic temper or 
tend to destroy character altogether. Yet among the 
most beautiful and buoyant and joyous lives on earth 
to-day are those of men and women who are incessant 
sufferers. "Tribulation worketh patience, and pa- 
tience appro vedness, and approvedness hope, and 



296 VEKIFICATION OF CHBISTIAN EXPEBIENCE 

hope maketh not ashamed, for the love of God is 
shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost, 
which is given unto us" (Eomans v. 3-5). Tribula- 
tion thus ceases to be a consumer in the ethical 
realm and becomes a producer. Thus also the pessi- 
mistic theory that suffering is a reaping of the seeds 
of sin sown in the past is transformed into the view 
that suffering is itself a sowing, the glorious harvest 
of which is reaped in time and eternity. Surely, as 
a working theory of life this is a strong point in 
favor of Christian experience. 

295. (c) In practical life again the believer's 
experience is known as effect and afterwards as cause. 
It is an effect produced in him by divine forces at 
conversion. Reducing redemption to a formula, we 
might put it thus : a-{-b = c. Let a stand for the 
efficient cause, Christ; b for the condition, repentance 
and faith, and c for the result, regeneration. Now 
b and c, two out of the three elements of the formula, 
are known to the Christian in consciousness, as ex- 
periences within his own soul. They are the most 
indubitable of facts for him. He knows, also, that a, 
the efficient cause, was Jesus Christ, although he 
knows this indirectly through the result produced 
within. Now, having been renewed himself, he be- 
comes a propagator of the faith. He adopts the 
formula as the working theory of Christian propa- 
gandise!. He becomes the channel through which the 
efficient cause a acts upon others. He finds that 
he can now produce, as secondary cause, the result 



VERIFICATION THROUGH PRAYER 297 

before produced in him. The remarkable fact ap- 
pears that when the factor a is omitted the result 
does not follow. Christianity with Christ left out 
is unworkable. 

296. (d) Consider next the verification of Chris- 
tian experience by means of prayer. Here our con- 
cern is with the practical side of prayer rather than 
the theoretical. Prayer, of course, presupposes The- 
ism, or the existence of a personal God, and man's 
capacity for communion with him. We need only 
presuppose, also, that the world was planned in the 
interest of personal beings rather than in the interest 
of mechanical nature below the personal, in order to 
discover the utility and possibility of prayer. Answers 
to praj^er were prearranged in the making of the 
world, and by its very constitution. The wonder is 
not that prayer is ever answered, but that man so 
neglects to claim his heritage and ask for what all 
nature labors to bring to him. 

Now, practical experience in prayer when persisted 
in uniformly brings two very definite convictions. 
One is the conviction just pointed out that the make 
of the world admits of answer to prayer. The other 
is of the reality of personal intercourse with God. 
The assurance grows steadily that "spirit with spirit 
can meet." Again, we must insist that this assur- 
ance is not of the nature of logical assurance, or 
conviction based on a process of reasoning or infer- 
ence. It is distinctly diverse in its nature from such 
conviction. Personal fellowship with God becomes 



298 VERIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

a unique experience. It is repeated frequently and 
thus confirmed. It is as definite and convincing as 
convictions arising from our actions and reactions 
upon physical objects. We have not exhaustive 
knowledge of these, but very real knowledge. This 
knowledge of God is as direct as our knowledge of 
our fellowmen, whose real essence we do not behold, 
yet whom we know through results produced in us 
by physical and intellectual and moral means. 

In all the above and other ways practical life con- 
firms Christian experience, and it is found that the 
Christian view of the causes at work in regeneration 
is the only adequate and satisfying view of the causes 
which preside over his whole earthly course. 

297. (4) We note in the next place the verifica- 
tion of Christian experience by the experience of 
other Christians. There is a private element in the 
experience of each individual. No two personal fel- 
lowships are ever exactly alike. So to each believer 
a "white stone" is given with a new name written 
thereon, which no one knoweth but he to whom it is 
given (Eev. ii. 17). But the individual experience 
does not stand alone. Its essentials are repeated in 
communities, in churches, in periods of time, and 
through Christian ages. It is thus that experience is 
saved from the charge of being individual and sub- 
jective merely. It thus becomes an order of facts 
in the religious sphere. It thus comes under the 
operation of law. Thus, also, it challenges and merits 
the attention of the scientific observer. 



COMPARED WITH NEW TEST. EXPERIENCE 299 

298. (5) Again, Christian experience is verified 
by comparison with the earliest literature of the dis- 
tinctively Christian experience, the New Testament. 
It should be remarked here that when we employ the 
Scriptures to confirm Christian experience we may 
safely ignore critical questions. For, as a record of 
religious experience, the witness of the Scripture is 
valid independently of the questions of date, author- 
ship or composition. The theology of experience, in- 
deed, is achieving a remarkable double form of in- 
dependence in the religious realm. It is achieving 
first an independece for experience itself. He who 
has known Christ's power in his own life is convinced 
whatever may be true as to date and authorship of the 
books of the Bible. It is also achieving an inde- 
pendence for Scripture. Experience goes behind crit- 
icism and pronounces the Scripture true because it 
conforms to the spiritual facts of to-day. John's 
Gospel stands because of the decree of this court of 
experience, though it has been established also on 
critical grounds. In the clear atmosphere of ex- 
perience critical theories cease from troubling and 
doubting souls are at rest. 

Now this New Testament literature bears a most 
remarkable relation to modern Christian experience. 
First of all it agrees with modern experience in its 
psychical and spiritual contents. The same causes 
and the same conditions produce the same effects. 
Regeneration, the moral renewal, or the new birth, 
follows directly or is accompanied by the same atti- 



300 VEEIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

tude of the soul. Jesus Christ himself as the object 
of faith bears the same vital and organic relation to 
the whole moral change and to the general production 
of the ethical result in character and society. 

The New Testament literature is the record, also, 
of the historical causes which account for the in- 
dividual experience and the common experience of the 
Christian society. In other words, the New Testa- 
ment actually presents to us the experience itself in 
closest conjunction with the creative forces. These 
have already been described in our account of Jesus 
Christ. 

Again, modern experience is created, nourished and 
stimulated by the use of the New Testament litera- 
ture. To act on the belief that that literature fur- 
nishes the key to religious experience uniformly re- 
sults in a confirmation of the belief. Moreover, church 
history clearly teaches that every great revival in the 
history of Christianity has been the result of a return 
to or renewed interest in the literary sources of the 
Gospel. 

299. (6) The next mode of verification is a con- 
tinuation of the last, but merits separate treatment, 
viz., verification through the witness of the Holy 
Spirit. Under this head we confront the facts which 
furnish the trinitarian basis of Christian experience. 
It is not claimed that Christian experience alone 
proves the doctrine of the Trinity. Kevelation and 
experience together yield a trinitarian result. 

Here the first point to be considered is that Jesus 



WITNESS OF HOLY SPIEIT 301 

repeatedly made promise of the Holy Spirit (Luke xi. 
13; John vii. 39). The Spirit was to speak not of 
himself but concerning Christ. He was to show 
disciples the things of Christ (John xiv. 26 ff.). 
Disciples wore to wait for the promise of the Father 
(Acts i. 4). Pentecost was the fulfillment of the 
promise (Acts ii. 33 ff.). 

After his coming, the total influence of the Spirit 
as recorded in the New Testament was, on its in- 
tellectual side, illumination as to the historic facts 
concerning Christ, or the communicating of new truth 
about him. On its moral side his work was to create 
in believers the moral and spiritual image of Christ. 
Both the conviction for sin, which was unbelief and 
the cure of sin, faith, were wrought by the Spirit in 
relation to Christ. Sin was lack of faith in him, sal- 
vation came of faith in him (John iii. 36; v. 40; xvi. 
8 ff.). The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
made men free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 
viii. 2). If a man have not the Spirit of Christ he 
is none of his (Rom. viii. 9). If Christ is in you 
the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life 
because of righteousness (Rom. viii. 10). Again, if 
Christ's Spirit dwells in the believer, then he that 
raised Christ from the dead "shall quicken also your 
mortal bodies through his spirit, which dwelleth in 
you" (Rom. viii. 11). The entire process of sancti- 
flcation is to culminate in the believer's being "con- 
formed to the image of his Son" (Rom. viii. 29). 
In the same context the sense of the Fatherhood of 



302 [VERIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

God is set forth as the result of the indwelling of 
the Spirit. They are sons of God who are led by 
the Spirit of God. Through him comes the Spirit 
of adoption whereby we cry "Abba Father" (Rom. 
viii. 15). 

Space forbids further unfolding of this thought. 
All the epistles of the New Testament agree in thus 
describing the work of the Holy Spirit. The teach- 
ings may be summarized thus : The operation of the 
Holy Spirit was according to spiritual law, that is, 
it was uniform. The progress, the end, and the 
limits of that law were determined by the Person 
and work of Christ. The effect of the Spirit's work 
on the soul was like that of a royal signet on wax. 
The Spirit applied the seal, but the impress which 
remained was of one face alone, that of Christ. 5 As 
every ray of sunlight can be traced directly to the 
sun, so every ray of the Spirit's light in the soul 
can be traced to Christ as the Revealer of God. 

Now, in modern Christian experience the above 
result is exactly reproduced. This truth may be 
generalized thus: The line of least resistance in 
spiritual growth is found to be in the direction of 
Christ's moral image. The indwelling Spirit creates 
and interprets that image in the believer's inner life. 
Other ideals, other modes of realizing righteousness, 
result in friction, resistance, disappointment. This is 
no easy or sudden attainment; but experience, that 
is to say experiment, brings to the believer not the 
logical demonstration of the syllogism, nor the mathe- 



VERIFICATION PROGRESSIVE 303 

matical demonstration of the theorem, but the prac- 
tical "demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 
Cor. ii. 4). 

300. In conclusion, it remains to remark that all 
the methods of the verification of Christian experi- 
ence are progressive. Each reinforces the other. The 
cumulative effect of them all produces immovable con- 
viction. The gross result in moral and spiritual at- 
tainment is itself the solid basis of outward fact, 
which fortifies us against any imputation of self- 
deception. The inner basis of fact is our own ex- 
perience of spiritual realities operating as causes. 
There is a mysterious, an unexplained side of these 
inner realities. But the result is as tangible and real 
to us as that of a tree whose growth we observe while 
every particle of material addition to it is as mys- 
terious as life itself. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

THE RELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO RELIGIOUS 
EXPERIENCE. 

We say the relation of Jesus Christ to religious 
experience. For if he is actually the Creator of 
Christian experience through personal living action 
in the souls of men, then other religious experiences, 
if genuine, are to be classed in one way or another 
as varieties or imperfect forms of this. In short, if 
he is God no rival can be supposed. He is "the true 
light, even the light which lighteth every man coming 
into the world" (John i. 9). 

301. We are now to consider Christ's relation to 
experience from the point of view of objections, or 
rather of proposed substitutes. In several ways now 
current substitutes are proposed for the divine, living, 
personal and spiritually creative Christ. Eecognizing 
that the name of Christ is woven into the very texture 
of religious experience, men seek in a variety of 
ways to show that the name is all that is necessary; 
that the conception of a living personal Christ may 
be dropped altogether from the formula of religious 
experience. A hasty glance at the alternative ex- 
planations of religious experience is all that our pres- 
ent limits will admit. From these we shall pass to 

304 



IDEALISTIC CHKIST 305 

an attempt to show that none of them is true or 
possible. Three of these only we name as sufficiently 
inclusive and representative: The idealistic Christ, 
the Eitschlian Christ, and the Christ of modern Psy- 
chology. 

302. The idealistic Christ arises out of the Gos- 
pels. The actual history may be unknown, it is urged. 
The real Jesus may have been a sinner. So long, 
however, as we obtain a workable moral ideal from 
the record by imaginative addition or otherwise we 
have all that is necessary. Tolstoy and some of the 
destructive critics of the New Testament, who, in 
some sense, wish to be called Christians, hold this 
view. Modern idealistic philosophy, which minimizes 
the history and magnifies the religious ideas of Christ, 
encourages a similar view. But in reply we must 
urge that while ideals have their noble uses, they 
do not and cannot serve the ends of the Gospel. The 
idea of the Gospel, dying to live, self denial, and love 
in the deepest sense, is foreign to human nature before 
regeneration. To be at home with the ideal man's 
will and affections must be raised to the plane of 
the ideal itself. Ideals conceived in and emanating 
from human brains can by no magic be transmuted 
into redemptive forces. The history of ideals, Greek 
and Roman and of other kinds, compared with that 
of Christianity, shows this. The Gospel is not an 
ideal merely, but power. 1 

303. There is also the Christ of Albrecht Ritschl 
and his school, which has been mentioned in a pre- 



306 CHBIST AND KELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

vious chapter. We do not know that Christ is God 
but only that he has for us the value of God. He 
does not act directly upon our hearts, but only in- 
directly through the written records of his word 
in the Gospel. But Christian experience replies 
promptly that it knows better. It knows that what 
it has felt and responded to is not merely the after 
effects of a dead man's teachings. It knows Christ 
as alive. Christ as beautiful example or as match- 
less teacher yonder and apart from me is as distinct 
from the Christ within as the stream that flows on a 
painter's canvas is distinct from the water that slakes 
my thirst. 

304. Then there is the Christ of recent psychology. 
That is, Christ is one of the many possible explana- 
tions of Christian experience. The principle of par- 
simony, which warns us not to multiply causes, is 
rigidly applied here. There is a power from above 
which regenerates man, it is urged. But we do not 
know and, it may be, cannot know what it is. We 
must think of it in the lowest possible terms. It is 
an Oversoul, or impersonal abstract principle, per- 
haps. 2 Professor James quotes with approval even the 
following: "The influence of the Holy Spirit, ex- 
quisitely called the Comforter, is a matter of actual 
experience, as solid a reality as that of electro-mag- 
netism." 3 But to assert anything definite about this 
supernatural power which enters the soul is, Professor 
James contends, simply to adopt an overbelief* The 
Buddhist calls it one thing, the pantheist gives his 



CHRIST OF BECENT PSYCHOLOGY 307 

answer and so on to the end. The Christian says it 
is God, or Christ, or the Holy Spirit, but there is no 
proof of this. It is merely his overbelief. 

Now we admire the empirical scientist who is 
jealous of his principle of rigid adherence to facts. 
His steadfast refusal to accept unfounded conclusions 
is wholly admirable. But he overreaches himself 
when he concludes that Christ's presence in Christian 
experience is merely an overbelief. In a sense, of 
course, every opinion relating to the unseen world is 
an "overbelief." The existence of the soul itself is 
such an overbelief. Yet consciousness and will are 
hopeless problems to scientific psychologists save on 
the "theory" that there is a soul which lies behind, 
and unifies experience. So also belief in electricity, 
or the force of gravitation, or the vital principle in 
plants and animals are such "overbeliefs." Yet 
science is guilty of no such timidity in asserting the 
existence of these realities and ascribing to them such 
qualities as make them distinct forms of existence. 
The principle of parsimony here does not seem to 
inspire such caution as in the religious sphere where 
the most barren of abstractions is all that the evidence 
is allowed to yield. 

Besides, it would seem strange that if the Oversoul 
is capable of meeting personal wants so completely it 
might not, without undue violence, be regarded as 
personal. Then, too, it seems incredible that going so 
far it goes no farther. If it produces "lyric enchant- 
ment," and acts as a new "gift of life," and "inspires 



308 CHEIST AND BELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

love/' as Professor James asserts, it surely will not 
mock man's craving for certainty by withholding 
further light. Conceive it if you can, a Regenerating 
Power, which remains forever dumb ! Without a com- 
municable idea or a voice, yet with power to lift man 
to a new moral level; creating in him a passionate 
longing to know, but hiding in the eternal depths of 
silence. The "practical reason" of the Christian be- 
liever makes short shrift of such a nebulous concep- 
tion of the "higher powers." Surely here Occam's 
razor, as the principle of parsimony has been called, 
has been ground to an edge so fine that it refuses to 
penetrate the flimsiest substance, but rather turns 
and becomes blunted thereby. 

It may be said as to all the proposed substitutes 
for Christ in experience that they are merely tenta- 
tive theories and not established conclusions. Their 
advocates are as the man not who taketh off but as 
the man who buckleth on the sword. They are with- 
out historic background. So far as they have such 
background it is against their credibility as we shall 
soon see. 

305. Coming now to the main question: Apart 
from the analysis of Christian experience itself and 
its evidence for the man in whom it takes place, are 
there grounds which ought to be convincing to the 
other man who stands outside that experience? 
Whether it will be convincing or not is another ques- 
tion, depending on a man's moral attitude towards 
the Christian view of life, his interest in the religious 



MANY LIVING WITNESSES 309 

"option." To employ Professor James' phraseology, 
this option may be to him "dead," "avoidable" or 
"trivial;" it can never be "forced." To every man 
it ought to be "living" and "momentous." 5 To all 
such there is abundant evidence to satisfy; to war- 
rant the reason in setting the seal of its approval upon 
the Christian venture of faith. 

306. First of all we must be profoundly impressed 
with the testimony of the multitude of witnesses to 
Christian experience, a multitude to-day which no 
man can number of merchants, and poets, of en- 
gineers and artists, of mechanics and scholars, of 
scientists, philosophers and statesmen. Many of them 
are trained experts in scientific and philosophic re- 
search. Professor Romanes was impressed with the 
number of Christian believers in the faculty of Cam- 
bridge University. 6 The witness borne by these men 
in hundreds of cases is critical and reflective in 
character. It is not merely an unreflecting but a 
reasoned testimony. It is a witness borne also in 
many instances under the constant fire of skepticism, 
and in an intellectual climate in great measure 
created by Agnosticism. Frequently, also, it is a 
witness born of a twofold experience, of unbelief first 
and of faith afterwards. The facts to which the 
testimony is borne lie in the one realm of absolute 
certainty, consciousness itself. Now, how does this 
testimony relate Christ to Christian experience? It 
says that Christ is related to it in so vital and or- 
ganic a manner that to leave him out it falls in 



310 CHEIST AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

ruins. Both its form and its substance owe their 
origin and existence to him as living personal Agent 
and Cause. Such testimony merits the highest con- 
sideration. Against it the theories formed by men, 
no more capable in any way and far less capable as 
not knowing the experience themselves, cannot stand 
for a moment. The testimony, indeed, is an irre- 
futable "consensus of the competent," equal to any 
conclusion ever established by consensus of scientific 
opinion. 

307. But the testimony of living witnesses is re- 
inforced by Christian history. Creeds are the monu- 
mental expression of religious conviction. If the 
reader will turn through the pages of SchafFs Creeds 
of Christendom and study these crystallizations of 
experience and thought during two thousand years 
of Christian history he will discover that Christ is 
not merely incidental, but fundamental in them all. 
They would wither and die like trees around which 
the bark has been cut were the doctrine of Christ's 
Person removed from them. The salvation which 
he reveals and accomplishes in and for men is the 
vertebral column of all the great creeds. This is 
their raison d'etre. They grow dumb in attempting 
to justify their own existence when robbed of this 
plea. 

Again, Jesus Christ has been the center of the 
progressive moral and spiritual movement of the 
world two thousand years. The Athanasian con- 
troversy was over the question of his divine nature. 



CHEIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 311 

The issue between Pelagius and Augustine referred 
to the nature of man and the nature of the salvation 
Christ brings. The Reformation was a return to 
justification by faith in Christ, a restoration of his 
supreme priesthood against the claims of an ecclesi- 
astical priesthood. The Puritan Eevolution had at 
its core the same great principle, the direct rela- 
tion of the soul to God as revealed through Christ. 
This means that Christ is the vital principle of 
Christian progress. There is no other key to the 
upward movement. 

Christian art and architecture bear the same wit- 
ness. The great paintings and the great cathedrals 
bear record to the manner in which his cross or his 
resurrection and ascension held sway in the Chris- 
tian consciousness of the ages. Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper have no meaning apart from him. 
These simple yet striking witnesses are the external 
and visible symbols of inward realities. The "real 
presence" in the Lord's Supper is not a "fact in the 
realm of matter," but it is inexplicable save as it 
represents a fact in the realm of the spirit. The 
very crudeness of the view that the bread and wine 
are his flesh and blood accentuates the vividness and 
intensity of the belief that Jesus Christ was not 
a dead man on whose grave the Syrian stars looked 
down, but the real presence behind the Christian 
movement. 

The experiential, the doctrinal, the historical, the 
artistic, the ceremonial and ecclesiastical lines of con- 



312 CHRIST AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

tinuity all run straight back to his Person. That 
Person was the one unifying bond in all the con- 
troversies and variations of Christendom. The whole 
movement is meaningless without him. As one has 
said: "We may not omit one of the nineteen cen- 
turies which bind the present as by a golden chain 
to the life of the carpenter " 7 

308. When we examine the New Testament itself 
we find that he is still the only clew to its signifi- 
cance. All that marvelous ethical beauty and spir- 
itual power stream as a radiance from this Person. 
"Children, obey your parents in all things, for this 
is well pleasing in the Lord" (Col. iii. 20). "Hus- 
bands love your wives as Christ loved the church and 
gave himself for it" (Eph. v. 25). So the command 
to wives, husbands, fathers, children, servants, are 
all enforced by the one supreme motive. "Ye serve 
the Lord Christ" (Col. iii. 24). He is the vital core 
of New Testament ethics. 

These words of disciples are in accord with those 
of Christ himself. We have repeatedly shown that 
Christ constantly offered himself to mankind as the 
object of their religious devotion. According to disci- 
ples and according to his own word, then, Christ was 
the medium through which life was to flow from 
God to men. He was the mould into which religious 
experience was to be cast. The human conscious- 
ness in its religious strivings and spiritual activities 
was to move around him. He was to be its great 
structural Idea and Law. We have already seen 



CHRIST AND EVANGELISM 313 

how history has vindicated his claim. There have 
been degenerations, of course, departures and varia- 
tions in many forms. But this type of experience 
has survived through them all and to-day exists in 
fresh vigor in thousands of lives in its original beauty 
and power. The form of the product two thousand 
years after the creation of the mould exactly fits 
the mould. 

309. We may arrive at the same conclusion by 
another route. We may test the matter by the 
method of propagating Christianity. How can the 
Christian results be produced in experience? Evan- 
gelism will shed light upon the answer to the ques- 
tion. Christian evangelism means the following: 
(a) The winning of men to the religious life by 
preaching, (b) The preaching of a set of truths, 
all of which are connected with Christ. The motives 
and appeals of successful evangelism Christ supplies, 
and the end in view is always faith in him. (c) The 
production of immediate results in the conversion of 
men. (d) The permanence of the moral results 
thus attained is the test of the reality of the moral 
transformation effected in conversion. Now it is a 
fact, beyond question, that from Pentecost to the 
present moment the evangelistic apparatus of Chris- 
tianity has worked successfully. Not only so. The 
striking fact in all that evangelism has been that 
where the idea of personal relation to Christ as Lord 
and Redeemer has been omitted from it evangelism 
has failed. The moral transformation does not take 



314 CHEIST AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

place. Christian history is rich in material to sus- 
tain this point, that the personal Christ is the heart 
of successful Christian evangelism. Harnack, in his 
recent history of early Christian missions, in Book 
III., chapter 3, gives this as a characteristic mark 
of the evangelism of the early centuries. 8 Indeed, 
Harnack constantly shows in various ways in this 
book that the preaching of the personal Christ was 
the heart of the power of early evangelism. 

So of other writers. Forms of Christianity which 
ceased to preach Christ began to wane. The early 
Socinian movement is an example. Koman Catholic 
missionaries prior to the Eeformation usually 
preached a Gospel vitalized by this supreme element, 
the need of faith in Christ as Savior from sin. After 
the Reformation, Jesuit missionaries in many in- 
stances preached an ecclesiasticism instead of Christ, 
as, for example, in Africa and China. Very little 
trace of that early work can be found there to-day. 

310. Note, now, the argument. Evangelism with 
a given element always produces a given result. 
Evangelism without that element always fails. Where 
Christ is preached as the object of faith and Producer 
of Christian experience, men are regenerated. Where 
this element is omitted men are left helpless. It 
is a proof based on what is known in inductive logic 
as the method of "concomitant variations/' Where 
one phenomenon always varies with the variation of 
another the two are causally connected. If the mer- 
cury in the thermometer uniformly rises as the sur- 



CHRIST'S MORAL SUPREMACY 315 

rounding temperature rises, and falls as it falls, the 
two are connected as cause and effect. In Christian 
evangelism men rise in the scale of moral being 
in proportion as the heat and power of the personal 
Christ is brought to bear upon them. 

311. Now suppose we concede for the moment 
that in its essence conversion is simply the perma- 
nent choice of duty as such, apart from Christ, or 
that it is the beginning of communion with the 
Oversoul, or the eternal world of spirit, or the higher 
powers, how comes it that every evangelism which 
leaves out the Person of Christ fails, however much 
it may insist on duty as such, or upon the need of 
communion with God? Who is this Christ that 
he should thus dominate the race and project him- 
self into its moral struggles? Fairbairn says there 
are two ways of getting rid of Christ. One is by 
critical analysis, which seeks to destroy the claim of 
the literary records, the Gospels and epistles of the 
New Testament. The other is by a dialectical 
analysis, which undermines confidence in the dog- 
matic decisions of the early Christian centuries by 
showing the absurdity of the attempts to define him 
as a divine being. But when both these processes 
have been completed there stands Christ in his unique 
place as the Lord of Christian history. 9 Analysis 
cannot touch him as the great insistent fact of the 
Christian consciousness, as real to-day as in PauPs 
day. No other religious teacher ever claimed or 



316 CHBIST AND EELIGIOUS EXPEEIENCE 

attained a place so unique and personal in the inner 
experience of his disciples as Jesus. 

312. Now, the success which attends the preach- 
ing of this Christian norm or experimental ideal in 
evangelism can be rationally accounted for. A divine 
Person, who reveals the true religious ideal of the 
race and who has power to impart the moral energy 
necessary to realize the ideaL — this is the explana- 
tion. If you were to reason a posteriori, from the 
effect back to the cause, you would be compelled to 
reach a conclusion which would involve the elements 
of the Christian view or explanation of the case. 
The effects match the cause, and the cause raises 
the expectations realized in the effects. One of the 
anecdotes which used to be current about the boy 
George Washington was that which related to his 
surprise when one morning he found his name spelled 
out by the growing plants in a garden bed. To 
the untutored mind of the boy it might have seemed 
as if magic had been at work, but the phenomenon 
was simple enough when explained by the father. 
For the forces necessary to produce the result were 
easily controlled to that end. Now, if Washington 
had predicted that for two thousand years after- 
wards that same name should appear in the garden 
beds of mankind, and have coupled with this predic- 
tion another, viz., that the presence of that name in 
clear outline in any garden would alone keep the 
other beds therein free from noxious weeds; and if 
this prediction had been fulfilled, the conclusion 



EVANGELISM WITHOUT CHRIST 317 

would be inevitable that Washington in some way 
controlled the secret forces of nature, was in alli- 
ance with the cosmos, and that in a manner above 
all ordinary human forms of such power. But Jesus 
Christ has done a far greater thing. He is writing 
his name spiritually upon thousands of lives to-day, 
and that name alone has succeeded in keeping man's 
spiritual garden clean. 

Here, then, are definite effects in religious experi- 
ence and character, of the highest moral excellence, 
definitely associated with the name and power of 
Christ. They cannot be explained by a wholly in- 
definite cause. The Christian hypothesis allows for 
all these facts; others fall far short of an explana- 
tion. 

313. The Christian norm of experience not only 
gives a rational account of itself, but it can rationally 
account for the failure of other forms of religious 
evangelism. The latter fail of equal results because 
they do not have either an ideal as high or a power 
whereby its ideal can be realized. It is the union of 
both elements which constitutes the final test. The 
power at work in Christian experience succeeds so 
well as compared with other forms of religious ex- 
perience, first, because it is personal and divine, and, 
second, because it connects itself in a manner so 
rational with all that is strongest and highest in 
man's nature. Compared with Buddhism, for ex- 
ample, the Christian ideal has all the strength of 
optimism as compared with pessimism. The Buddhist 



318 CHRIST AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

ideal is extinction of personal life. It is directly 
against all normal instincts in man in its encourage- 
ment of the love of non-being. Christianity fosters 
the love of being and the most definite hope of in- 
dividual life after death. The resurrection of the 
Author of the experience is its firm guarantee on 
this point. The arrested development of the life and 
civilization of the peoples where the Buddha has had 
sway, in contrast with the expansive life of Christian 
civilization which we see to-day, is not surprising in 
view of the causes at work. 

314. Again, the strength of the Christian type 
of experience as compared with others is the strength 
of intellectual confidence as compared with the weak- 
ness of doubt. The psychic results of this temper 
of confidence appear in evangelism, as above shown. 
They also appear in history in its aggressive energy, 
in its progressive ascendency through the centuries, 
and also in the fact that no rival system of philosophic 
or religious thought has appeared which has suc- 
ceeded long in disputing its ascendency. They have 
all had to make terms with it finally, in some form 
or other. This confidence has increased with the 
passing centuries. The individual believer of to-day 
is backed in his clear note of conviction by a line of 
confessors running back to the first disciples. The 
vagueness of the reference of religious experience 
merely to the '^higher powers," indefinite and im- 
personal, whether law, or force, or many gods, has 
long ago been tried and found wanting. The Greek 



CHEIST FINAL IN RELIGION 319 

philosophers reached that stage and came almost to 
despair, expressing the hope that some one would 
come with a "sure word" from the "higher powers." 
315. The above considerations lead to this further 
statement, viz., that Jesus Christ, as the religious 
norm or mould of the race, has proven effective be- 
cause the human consciousness has found in it the 
religious finality. It is, in this respect, like all the 
great insights and discoveries which men of genius 
have made from the beginning, although lifted far 
above them in other respects. Aristotle teaches the 
world logic to-day because in his development of the 
syllogism he con-formed to the laws of thought and 
the eternal structure of man's mind. His work can- 
not be transcended for the reason that it involves 
principles as elemental and permanent as the con- 
stitution of the human mind itself. Syllogistic rea- 
soning is based on rational ultimates. In like manner, 
the Christian norm of religious experience has won 
its position. It is final for all who have experiment- 
ally accepted it. To them it is inconceivable that 
it should ever be transcended. The reason is that 
it embraces every essential moral and religious fact 
known to religious experience. No moral excellence 
can be thought of which is not contained in it. It 
provides for the guilty conscience and rationalizes for- 
giveness in its doctrine of atonement. It provides 
for the renewal of the soul and the necessary moral 
dynamic in its doctrine of regeneration; and for its 
progressive development by conformity to the highest 



320 CHRIST AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

moral ideal known to the race, Christ himself. It 
provides for communion and fellowship with the 
eternal world through Christ, the Kevealer of the 
Father. This chief demand of other theories (com- 
munion with the higher powers) is more than met in 
the Christian view. Besides, this Christian norm 
works in practical life. All classes and conditions 
of men respond to it and are transformed by it. 

316. As above outlined, the Christian norm of 
religious experience can be intellectually vindicated 
to the candid inquirer and student of experience. As 
a theory or scientific hypothesis it accounts for all 
the facts. But when it becomes personal experience 
and men feel its power, the certainty becomes abso- 
lute. We have already seen how it is the certainty 
of contrast with past conditions. This certainty is 
confirmed by successive stages in the growth of 
Christian experience. The progressive fitting in of 
details into the general ideal and plan of the life 
in Christ and trust in the Father adds to the strength 
of the certainty. Thought supplements feeling. The 
latter stages confirm and correct the earlier. The 
eccentricities are detected and allowance is made for 
them. The incidentals are seen in relation to the 
essentials of the Christian life. The common ex- 
perience of other Christian believers with its uni- 
form and consistent rationale contributes to the cer- 
tainty. This is reinforced by the historic testimony 
of believers in the past. Finally, the present direct 
relation to the Personal living Christ, the Author of 



CONCLUSION &21 

the experience, finds explanation and confirmation 
at every point, in the New Testament records of 
early Christian experience, and these in turn rest 
directly upon the words of the historic Christ. 

317. It is clear, therefore, that the attempt to 
eliminate Christ from Christian experience fails. 
Christian doctrine, Christian progress and Christian 
experience alike refuse to submit to the process. The 
facts stubbornly resist it. Seeking to discredit cer- 
tain methods of finding evidences of design in nature 
a writer says: "If I should throw down a thousand 
beans at random upon a table, I could doubtless, by 
eliminating a sufficient number of them, leave the 
rest in almost any geometrical pattern you might 
propose to me, and you might then say that that 
pattern was the thing prefigured beforehand and 
that the other beans were mere irrelevance and pack- 
ing material." 10 The same writer adds : "Our deal- 
ings with nature are just like this." That is, we 
manipulate the facts in order to produce our pre- 
conceived pattern. 

Passing by this charge as to finding design in 
nature we remark that the reverse process is also 
possible. We may manipulate the beans so as to 
destroy a pattern already present. The pattern of 
Christ and his power are in New Testament facts, 
doctrinal facts, ecclesiastical and historical facts, and 
in experimental facts during two thousand years. 
To refuse to recognize and scientifically deal with 
this fact is simply to manipulate the beans to bring 
forth a preconceived result. 



PART IV. 

THE EVIDENCE FROM CHRISTIAN 
HISTORY. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE TEST OF USEFULNESS I CHRISTIANITY A PERPET- 
UAL INCENTIVE. 

318. It is probable that if the average man of 
to-day were questioned on the subject he would 
declare that the best test of a religion is its use- 
fulness. It is proposed now to apply this test 
to Christianity. The chief emphasis will be upon 
"usefulness" in the sense of workableness. It is 
assumed that Christianity is valuable in its moral 
ideals, that these are the highest and purest known 
to man. There is now, indeed, scarcely any contro- 
versy on this point. Men do not now deny that, if 
practicable, Christian morality is best. It is pro- 
posed rather to consider whether as a religious and 
moral movement Christianity has shown that it is 
practically workable. 

Behind this inquiry will be the further question, 
whether its workableness is due to a divine power 
inherent in it or to natural causes. The latter of 
these questions has been answered, it is hoped in 
very large measure, in preceding chapters. We have 
now to view the action of Christianity in history. 
It will thus appear, it is believed, to be a divine 
force working towards a divine end. 

825 



326 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

The modern word which suggests the proposed 
method of regarding Christianity is the favorite one, 
success. Has Christianity succeeded, or has it failed ? 
Does it contain the original Christian elements or has 
it been hopelessly corrupted? Is it adapted, as a 
religion, to meet all the needs of man? Is there 
prospect that it will be superseded ? Will the energy 
by which it has wrought in earlier ages give way 
to some power greater than itself? These questions 
will occupy us in our remaining chapters. 

First of all, what is a fair test of success? It is 
important that the principles on which our judgment 
is based be clearly grasped. A superficial view might 
easily conclude that Christianity is a failure. Society 
is still battling against evils of all kinds. Injustice, 
suffering, crime and war still afflict mankind griev- 
ously. The moral task of the race is far from com- 
plete, in spite of the fact that Christianity has been 
acting upon the world nearly two thousand years, to 
saying nothing of the long prior history of Judaism. 

The following statements may assist us in reach- 
ing the proper attitude for a sane judgment. 

319. (1) The success of Christianity is relative 
to the opposition to be overcome, and it must be so 
judged. How many thousand years of evil did the 
new faith have to face! How deep seated and In- 
curable seemed the moral disease of mankind when 
Christ came ! The following language of Dean Mil- 
man is none too strong: "The conflict of Chris- 
tianity with Judaism was a civil war, that with 



SUCCESS BELATIVE TO OPPOSITION 327 

Paganism the invasion and conquest of a foreign ter- 
ritory. In the former case it was the declared design 
of the innovation to perfect the established constitu- 
tion on its primary principles; in the latter it con- 
templated the total subversion of the existing order 
of things, a reconstruction of the whole moral and 
religious being of mankind." 1 The total moral weight 
of the world with its deadly pull away from God 
must be overcome. The human heart and will were 
set as flint against it. Morally the planet had es- 
caped from its orbit, and was plunging blindly 
through space. A power was required capable of 
bringing it back; yet a power acting with sufficient 
gentleness to avoid the ruin and chaos of a sudden 
(reversal of movement; with sufficient persistence 
to pursue the orb to the limits of its wandering 
flight; and with moral and spiritual resources equal 
to the task of washing it clean of its sin and creating 
a regenerated society. 

It is clear that none but a madman would de- 
mand that this work be done in a day. Nothing 
short of a force, both omnipotent and gentle, could 
ever hope to cope with the situation. In the nature 
of the case many weary centuries must elapse ere 
the end could be attained. 

320. (2) Again, its success is relative to the pro- 
gramme proposed by Christianity itself. When we 
consider the words of its Founder it is clear that he 
contemplated no sudden revolution in the moral con- 
dition of mankind. This was not his method. It 



328 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

is true there were to be crises and quick onward 
movements; but for the most part the progress of the 
kingdom was to be gradual. Many of Christ's para- 
bles show this. The Kingdom of God is like leaven, 
which works silently and slowly ; or it conforms to the 
growth of grain, first the blade, then the ear, then 
the full corn in the ear. The sons of the kingdom 
and the sons of the evil one are to grow together, 
like wheat and tares, until the end of the world. In 
the book of Eevelation the battle between the oppos- 
ing forces is dramatically set forth under many fig- 
ures. Each victory is succeeded by a fresh conflict. 
Evil, subdued in one form, quickly assumes another. 
A beast, a false prophet, a wicked woman, a corrupt 
city, are some of the symbols of its varied manifesta- 
tion. Only at the end of a long and weary struggle 
does the city of God appear coming down to earth 
out of heaven. 

321. (3) In the next place the success of Chris- 
tianity is relative to the spiritual laws which con- 
trol its action upon men and society. Processes 
which are inward and vital are not so rapid as those 
which are mechanical. Every permanent moral and 
spiritual gain is purchased at great cost. To build 
a tree is not the same as to build a house. It requires 
a longer time. To build a man is a far more diffi- 
cult process than to build a tree. Indeed, these proc- 
esses are not described by the word "build," which 
suggests a mechanical process. They are growths, 
unfoldings from within. When the inner unfolding 



RELATIVE TO SPIRITUAL LAWS 329 

becomes personal and involves the action of a will 
it is most difficult of all. When that will has been 
perverted by sin, warped and weakened at every 
point, its complete regeneration is necessarily pain- 
ful and slow. The glory of Christianity is that it 
does not force the will. Men must choose for them- 
selves in order to the highest moral attainment. Moral 
and spiritual sonship to God cannot be imposed upon 
an evil nature. The thing is impossible. It would 
not be sonship. Christianity, then, necessarily con- 
forms to the action of man's nature — respects in- 
dividuality, personalit}', freedom. Christ's supreme 
task, the most difficult of all tasks for deity itself, 
is to save man and yet leave him free. Hence the 
necessity of infinite patience on his part. Hence 
the "everlasting importunity" of his love. 

Yet, men demand haste of Christ and his church 
and arraign them for lack of success, meaning by 
success quick returns which bulk large to the eye. 
They would destroy thus the essence of Christianity. 
They assume that it is a physical rather than a spir- 
itual force; that man's nature is like a block of 
marble which can be shaped by tools applied ex- 
ternally, and that moral progress in history is as 
simple as laying such blocks upon each other in an 
external manner. These objectors would destroy the 
nature of Christianity as religion. It would cease 
to be a religion, if it ceased to be a personal rela- 
tion between God and man, attended by free action on 
the part of both. 



330 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

322. (4) Again, the success of Christianity is 
relative to the end to be accomplished. What is that 
end? The reply is, the kingdom of God, perfect 
men in a perfect society, wherein love has become 
the supreme law of action, to be realized on earth or 
in heaven or in both. 

It is in the light of the above principles that we 
are to form our estimate of the success of Chris- 
tianity. It is unfair to attempt to discredit it be- 
cause it has not yet made the world over into the 
divine image. But there are tests, most severe, which 
it is fair to apply. It is entirely proper to ask has 
Christianity been faithful to its task? Has it per- 
severed with the vagrant race? Has it made a good 
beginning of the work of regeneration? Has it ex- 
hibited capacity for coping with every form of oppo- 
sition? Has it shown that it can meet the spiritual 
needs of all types of men? Has it been turned back 
by climate, or government, social or racial condi- 
tions? Has it encountered any force which gives 
promise of overthrowing it in the end ? Has it made 
progress? Does it possess power of recovery from 
within, when turned back or defeated in its course? 
Now, two thousand years of Christian history furnish 
us with abundant answer to the above questions. 

323. (1) For one thing we are profoundly im- 
pressed with the manner in which Christ has laid 
hold upon and moulded the world through person- 
alities. Institutions have arisen on the Christian soil 
in large numbers, yet the real significance of the 



CHRIST MOULDS PERSONALITIES 331 

movement is discerned best in its personalities. The 
apostle Paul, in an important sense, is the creator 
of modern Europe. Augustine with Clement and 
Origen in the early centuries, with Luther and Calvin 
in the later, have directed the course of Christian 
history in its purest and most central currents. 

Dr. Geo. A. Gordon says: "Luther gave a new 
direction to the subsequent development of European 
life; he was the master of his age, and turned its 
best forces to fresh and momentous expression. To 
write the history of the Reformation and leave Luther 
out of the account is not possible. Granted that 
great ideas were concerned in the movement — still 
these ideas were centered in the strongest personality 
of the time, and through that dauntless manhood were 
wielded with elemental energy upon the imagination 
and heart of Europe." 2 This is Christ's method. He 
lays hold of men and through them changes the 
course of history. Dr. Fairbairn says with great 
truth that Christ has exhibited unparalleled power: 
"First, to change men, to make bad men good; sec- 
ondly, an unparalleled power to make the men he 
has reformed into factors of good — agents of redemp- 
tion; an unparalleled power to associate the men he 
has redeemed into societies with larger ideas than the 
states of the earth, societies with an ideal and mis- 
sion of their own, or, rather, one that is altogether 
his." 8 

324. Closely related to the above consideration 19 
this: Christ is the creator of a great diversity of 



332 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

moral types. The essentials of Christian character 
are invariable. But these are so comprehensive and 
touch human nature so deeply in the springs of con- 
duct that a great variety is manifest in the result. 
Mr. Lecky, who is assuredly not biased in favor of 
orthodox Christianity, has been much impressed with 
this fact. There were two chief defects in Stoicism, 
according to him, in which it compared most un- 
favorably with Christianity. Its moral ideal was 
fixed. As a discipline of self control and the means 
of developing an iron will it had merit, but it lacked 
flexibility. It could make heroes but not common 
men. As a result, it never reached the masses of 
men. Christianity, on the other hand, accomplished 
both. "The Christian type," says Mr. Lecky, "is the 
glorification of the amiable, as the Stoic type was 
that of the heroic qualities, and this is one of the 
reasons why Christianity is so much more fitted 
than Stoicism to preside over civilization, for the 
more society is organized and civilized, the greater 
is the scope for the amiable, and the less for the 
heroic qualities." 4 The above general conclusion is 
in the main correct, though it is a mistake to suppose 
that Christianity is unproductive of the heroic type 
in the highest sense. Mr. Lecky^s statement warrants 
a twofold inference regarding Christ and his moral 
type. First, Christ anticipated the future course of 
civilization and conformed to it and thus was enabled 
to influence it. Or else Christ created the course of 
future civilization by means of the new type which he 



OVERCOMING OPPOSITION 333 

proclaimed. Confessedly this type was new; it was 
unknown in his day. But Christ made it successful, 
and is making it successful today, among many races, 
in many climates, and among all classes. 

325. (2) This leads us to the next evidence of the 
workableness of Christianity, which is its success in 
overcoming opposition. The typical instance of this 
is the early persecutions. These persecutions exhibit 
the new faith over against the world-forces of the 
early centuries. Attempts have been made to mini- 
mize the persecutions. We need not pause to con- 
sider these attempts. One fact is perfectly clear. In 
these repeated and long continued efforts to extinguish 
the faith of Christians, we see that faith acting upon 
the world, and the total combined forces of the world 
acting upon Christianity. It was as if the antagonists 
were placed upon a raised platform, and the surround- 
ing space cleared of all obstructions for the world to 
behold the conflict. This new spiritual power was ut- 
terly foreign to the dominant forces of the age. It 
was in deadly antagonism to the prevalent polytheism. 
The current philosophy scarcely recognized its exist- 
ence and scorned it when it came under its notice. 
The power of the Eoman government was directed 
in fury against its very life. Its triumph is too well 
known to dwell upon. When Julian afterwards at- 
tempted again to suppress it, he failed utterly. The 
reported reply of a Christian priest to the taunting 
question of one of Julian's subjects during the lat- 
ter's campaign against Christianity contains a strik- 



334 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

ing hint of the new law of the development of civiliza- 
tion. The priest was asked by the rhetorician 
Libanius, "What is your carpenter's son doing now ?" 
and replied, "He is now making a coffin for your Em- 
peror." 5 

326. The successful conflict of Christianity with 
the world forever baffles every attempt to explain the 
former on grounds of naturalistic evolution. Here 
was progress through crisis, indeed. Adopting the 
evolutionary phraseology for a moment, the organism 
did not succeed by adaptation to but by adaptation of 
environment. The worldly environment was in 
deadly hostility to the organism. Yet according to 
evolution no life can survive without correspondence 
with environment. What conclusion follows? This, 
that the environment was not merely natural. It was 
also supernatural. Christ stood within the shadow 
keeping watch above his own. 

327. This correspondence with a supernatural en- 
vironment explains also the remarkable power of re- 
covery from within which has been a mark of Chris- 
tianity from the beginning. When the opposition 
of the world takes not the form of persecution, which 
usually quickens its power, but of a chilling influence, 
which devitalizes it, leaving it apparently dead, it 
shows remarkable capacity for self-recovery. From 
some secret source it draws life and power and sud- 
denly through some great personality it utters its 
voice and exerts its power, and once more the kingdom 



POWER OVER DIVERSE PEOPLES 335 

comes. Throughout the Christian centuries is found 
the evidence of this power. 

328. (3) A third evidence of the workableness of 
Christianity is its ability to take hold upon and mould 
the life of diverse peoples. Now it is a peculiarity of 
the ethnic faiths, the great national religions of the 
world that they have won their chief triumphs among 
peoples kindred to those among whom the religions 
themselves have taken their rise. This is true of 
Buddhism and Mohammedanism. Christianity, on 
the contrary, was rejected by the Jews and accepted by 
gentile peoples. It was an oriental faith conquering 
the Occident, and again in our day it is moving east- 
ward with conquering power. Thus it appears that 
the ordinary law of development was reversed. Na- 
tional genius did not create and does not perpetuate 
Christianity. 

329. (4) Again, the workableness of Christianity 
appears in the universality of its ideals. Jesus taught 
no specific governmental or social order. Socialists 
and individualists alike have claimed Jesus, but his 
name cannot be appropriated by any temporary propa- 
ganda which has arisen in two thousand years. Chris- 
tianity has existed in harmony with any and all 
forms of government. It is the religion and the 
ethics of man as man and not of any race or people. 
Its principles are capable of the most varied appli- 
cation. Like leaven it works in and transforms 
oriental or western society alike. 6 Like a river 
which is colored by its bed or by the surrounding 



336 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

soil/ this faith flows on its way. Yet no corrupting 
hue or tint can abide. The river is absorbent and 
it is cleansing, adapted to all, purifying all. 

330. (5) Closely related to the preceding point 
is the fact that Christianity has demonstrated its 
power of producing symmetry of character. We 
have in a previous chapter noticed the matchless 
unity and symmetry of character in Christ himself. 
All the contents of virtue, so far as known to man 
at present, Christianity inculcates and produces. It 
is not meant, of course, that every Christian is sym- 
metrical in moral attainment. Nor that all the ele- 
ments of virtue are noticeable in any one com- 
munity or period among Christ's people. But it is 
meant that there is no form of moral excellence 
which can be named which has not been created 
under Christian motives and forces. Often the re- 
sult has come in a one-sided or partial manner. But 
that excellence which is absent at one period ap- 
pears in another. This fact suggests that the moral 
resources are exhaustless. Mill was not wrong in 
saying that to live as Christ would have us live 
would be the attainment of the ideal of virtue. 
Eomanes also was entirely justified in his strong as- 
sertions as to the permanence of Christ's teachings, 
the race never having outgrown one of them. 

331. (6) A last remark as illustrative of the 
workableness of Christianity is that its course in 
history has been one of progressive attainment. This 
will appear in the next chapter, but must be noted 



CHEISTIANITY PROGRESSIVE 337 

here. In this respect the religion of Christ con- 
trasts sharply with all the ethnic faiths. The lat- 
ter reach a stage of arrested development and cannot 
proceed further. They possess no power of self- 
recovery or of continuous progress. It is true of 
Buddhism and Mohammedanism that they appear 
to have reached the end of their ethical progress. 
Higher forms do not appear. But the Christian 
religion throbs with a life and power today such 
as it has not known for centuries. It has recov- 
ered from a long period of corruption and inward 
decay during the dark ages. Forces foreign to it- 
self gained a foothold within and seemed to have 
well-nigh destroyed its spiritual power. Christ con- 
quered a few great hearts, restored to the world the 
literary sources in the New Testament books, and 
the world swung out into a new moral career. 
Christ's name and influence colors, if it has not yet 
fully subdued, every element of western civilization. 
Now this progressive realization of its ideal is one 
of the surest evidences of the workableness of Chris- 
tianity. Christ has not yet saved the world, but he 
has taken hold of the world savingly; and this is 
the chief thing. The real test of the Christian ideal 
is not whether it can be realized fully in a human 
life under present conditions, but whether it is 
capable of acting as a perpetual incentive; whether 
it works not perfectly but dynamically. Surely it 
does thus act upon men. Surely it has become the 
moral and religious working force of the upward 



338 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

movement of the world. The revolving centuries, 
nay, the eternal years of God are Christ's. He will 
yet complete his work. The end is delayed because 
the process is costly and exacting. As Dr. Alexander 
Maclaren has said: "Let no man say, because high 
noon seems long in coming, that it will never come. 
Let us rather say as we wait in the gloom, how 
glorious will that day be, of which the twilight dawn 
has lasted nineteen hundred years." 7 

332. Before closing this chapter we must bestow 
a brief glance upon the cause of the success of 
Christianity. Many attempt to account for it with- 
out the supernatural. Gibbon's explanation does 
not touch the real question of the origin of the 
faith whose triumph he records. 8 Mr. Lecky has 
said that "the chief cause of its success was the con- 
gruity of its teaching with the spiritual nature of 
mankind/' Again he says: "One great cause of 
the succcess of Christianity was that it produced 
more heroic actions and formed more upright men 
than any other creed." 9 But neither of these state- 
ments explains the success of Christianity. Stoicism 
itself, as a moral system contained many of the 
loftiest ideas found in Christianity, and was con- 
gruous so far with man's nature, but it did not suc- 
ceed. And to assert that Christianity "produced 
more heroic actions and formed more upright lives 
than other creeds is merely to point out the effect, 
not the cause. How did Christianity thus produce 
so many heroic actions and upright lives ? 



GOD SEEKING MAN 339 

333. We cannot enlarge upon the answer, but 
may suggest it. The central truth of the reply is 
that Christianity, as distinct from other religions, 
represents the divine initiative in salvation. In 
other faiths man seeks God. In this God seeks man. 
The incarnation of God in Christ is a reversal of 
the world movement in religion. Other religions 
by their gropings and searchings after God prepare 
the way for this. But this is different in degree and 
kind from them. 

334. In this religion of the divine Initiative 
there were two chief factors. The first was Revela- 
tion, the second Energy. Consider briefly the Reve- 
lation. In Christ man is revealed to himself. Man 
did not know his own moral nature or possibilities 
in any adequate way. His likeness to God, his 
eternal existence in a future life, his priceless 
worth, the nature of the sin which kept him from 
God, he did not understand save in a vague man- 
ner. Christianity was not merely congruous with 
man's spiritual nature, it was also an interpretation 
of that nature. 

Christianity was also a Revelation of God. Men 
believed in God before Christ came. But the idea 
of God had never before proved itself practically 
efficient, capable of transforming men of all nations 
and grades of character. Why was this? The 
philosopher Kant said we cannot prove God's exist- 
ence by the natural reason. We believe in him be- 
cause our moral nature demands him. But this 



340 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

leaves God a mere assumption of the moral nature or 
a dim phantom of speculation. Kant's view, while 
defective, has in it something of the truth. The 
idea of God must take some form more vital than 
a speculation or an assumption if it is to move us 
deeply. 

335. J. H. Newma» has said that great ideas 
never command us until personalized in some great 
character. Now the idea of God as a person could 
never be made potent in the. highest degree over 
men's lives until it, too, was personalized. Only a 
person can reveal a person. A garment, an epistle, 
a token may suggest a person, but they are incon- 
clusive and inadequate if no one ever saw him from 
whom they come. So the garment of God in na- 
ture, his epistles in conscience and reason, his tokens 
all about us came short. Hence this great concep- 
tion of God became personalized. The law was 
given, but grace and truth came" (John i. 17). 

Professor William James- holds that every view 
of the universe below the personal plane, such as 
Materialism, and every view which seeks to go be- 
yond or above the idea of a personal God, are 
doomed to be cast aside by man because they do 
not stimulate him to practical endeavor. 10 

336. The practical test is applied to all ideas. 
The idea of God even failed as a sufficient practical 
stimulus until it was revealed in Christ. In him 
it became a power capable of acting successfully 
upon all types of men. The Kitschlian theology does 



A EITSCHLIAN CONCESSION. 341 

homage to this truth in a peculiar way. It waives 
the question of the real divinity of Christ, but claims 
that he has for us the value of God and thus reaches 
and saves men. The idea of God alone fails, its 
value must be set forth in personal human terms. 
This truth is recognized in this very inadequate 
theology. 

The other factor in the religion of the divine Ini- 
tiative is Energy. Mr. Lecky's theory that the suc- 
cess of Christianity was due to its congruity with 
man's spiritual nature is answered by all the moral 
history of the race apart from Christ. Congruity 
with man's nature alone has never been a guarantee 
of success in moral teaching. Power is the great 
need, reinforcement of a feeble will. "The Gospel is 
the power of God unto salvation." It is a divine 
purpose working through the indwelling spirit to- 
wards his eternal kingdom. 

337. Dim and feeble is the light of mere theism 
when compared with that of Christianity. Hear 
what one says who can go no further than the bare 
belief in a personal God : "We stand on a mountain 
pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding 
mist, through which we get glimpses now and then 
of paths which may be deceptive. If we stand still 
we may be frozen to death. If we take the wrong 
road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not cer- 
tainly know whether there be any right one. What 
must we do? c Be strong and of good courage.' Act 
for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes ; 



342 THE TEST OF USEFULNESS 

if death ends all we cannot meet death better." 11 
With this contrast the Christian hope based on the 
revelation of God in Christ, "which we have as an 
anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast 
and entering into that which is within the veil: 
whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having 
become a high priest forever after the order of 
Melchizedek" (Heb. vi. 19, 20). 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE PAST AND PRESENT CHRIST AND HIS SUPREME 
ACT. 

338. There are two fruitful ways of looking at 
Christ's action in history. One is to confine atten- 
tion to his achievements in individuals and society. 
The other considers not these many achievements so 
much as his one great achievement in taking and 
keeping hold of the world. One method counts the 
deeds of Christ, the gesta Christi; the other has re- 
gard to the one great deed, the gestum Christi. It 
is usual to pursue the former method of counting 
the trophies of Christ. We shall bestow a brief 
glance on these, but our plan in this chapter will be 
to regard the matter from the other standpoint. 
For, when we have counted the net gains of Chris- 
tianity in the world we have barely touched the 
surface of the problem. But when we have properly 
estimated Christianity as a force now acting on the 
world we are thereby raised to an elevation whence 
we may scan the past and forecast the future. The 
plea we now urge for the truth of Christianity is not 
based on what it has accomplished merely, nor on 
what one might surmise that it may accomplish, but 
rather on what Christianity is now doing. We aim 

843 



344 THE PAST AND PBESENT CHEI8T 

to show the quality of its work, and how potential 
it is. The past will thus be illumined, and the "one 
far off divine event" of the future draw nearer and 
become more real. 

339. Glance first, then, at the humane side of 
Christ's achievements in history. The long view 
here is the view that tells. Out of numerous illus- 
trations we select the changes in the condition of 
the child, the woman, and the slave. For it was on 
these that the weight of wrong pressed most heavily. 
What Christ found in the world and how he has 
changed the world eloquently speak of his power. 
The Roman father's power over his child was abso- 
lute. He could expose, scourge, mutilate, marry, 
divorce, sell as slave, or kill his own child accord- 
ing to law. Roman fathers in many instances, ac- 
cording to the records, actually slew their own sons 
and daughters. One of the most shocking modes 
of asserting this power was the exposure of children. 
Parents would sometimes plead poverty as justifica- 
tion for selling their children for basest purposes or 
exposing them to death. Mr. Loring Brace, who 
gives an excellent account of these practices in his 
valuable work, quotes a saying from Quintilian to 
the effect that "to kill a man is often held to be a 
crime, but to kill one's own children is sometimes 
considered a beautiful action among the Romans/' 
"Ovid gives a pathetic picture of the new born 
whose first day was its last, exposed to wild beasts; 
and describes those who flit about in the night, seek- 



THE CHILD, WOMAN AND SLAVE 345 

ing for these unfortunate little creatures for the 
worst of purposes." 1 

The status of woman under Roman law was but 
a step removed from that of children. She was the 
property of her husband, a chattel rather than a 
person. The husband had absolute power of her 
person and property, including the power of life 
and death. In India and China, and in Moham- 
medan countries today woman is still delivered over 
to the absolute control of her husband. She is the 
abiding martyr of the social order in every non- 
Christian land. 

The contrast to these conditions presented in 
America and other Christian countries needs not to 
be detailed. The shock which we feel in the mere 
reading of the above statements is a sufficient evi- 
dence of the change of sentiment. In some Ameri- 
can states we occasionally hear the fear expressed 
that so much legislation has been enacted to safe- 
guard the rights of the wife, that those of the hus- 
band may be endangered. 

Slavery in the ancient world was most revolting 
to the modern mind in many of its practices. Taci- 
tus gives an instance where six hundred slaves were 
executed for the mad act of one of their number in 
killing his master. A Roman put a slave to death 
to "afford a spectacle to a guest who had never seen 
a man die." Pollio, a Stoic, amused himself by 
feeding his fish with fragments of his mutilated 
slaves. 2 Everywhere in the ancient world slavery 



346 THE PAST AND PEESENT CHEIST 

was recognized as a normal and proper thing in the 
social order. 

340. We cannot here dwell upon the brutality 
and cruelty of the Koman games, nor the laxity of 
the marriage relation, nor the dreadfully low state 
of morals which left that ancient civilization rot- 
ten at the core, and struck through its vitals a 
hideous moral disease. The knell of that civiliza- 
tion had sounded long before the fatal blow fell 
from the North. 

341. There are three ways of showing that Chris- 
tianity was the chief agency in reforming the evils 
we have touched upon. One is to show that its 
teachings are opposed to them. Both the spirit and 
the letter of the New Testament were working as 
silent forces in the early centuries of our era to un- 
dermine them all. A second way is to show that 
no other force existed which could cope with these 
evils. Stoicism alone merits attention here. It 
sometimes recognized and condemned, but had no 
power whatever to eradicate the abuses or introduce 
a regenerating force into society. The third way 
is to show that Christian influences leavened society 
and actually shaped legislation in the direction of 
reform. It is clear as day that Christianity was the 
leavening force which began the new era of progress. 
The legislation of Constantine and that of Justinian 
are outstanding examples. The history of the times 
before and especially after Constantine bears on its 
face too plainly to be gainsaid the marks of its 



NEW LEAVEN OF CHAEITY 347 

transforming energy. Mr. Lecky does not hesitate 
to award to this religion the crown of pre-eminence 
as the new regenerating force of the world. 3 

342. We must here note one great achievement of 
Christ, which illustrates the nature of his power 
over men. He created the ideal of charity. Gifts 
were frequent among the ancients, but they were not 
based on the principle of altruism. They had regard 
to the giver. They were means to a self-regarding 
end. 4 The heathen liberalitas never approached the 
Christian charitas in self-forgetting love for others. 5 
The latter was of the essence of Christianity. The 
poor and outcast became the chief treasures of the 
church in the great cities. Hospitals and other 
similar institutions sprang up as the inevitable result 
of this principle. Christian charity too often has 
been indiscriminate and unwise. But here as else- 
where Christianity carries with it its own principle 
of regeneration and correction. Christians of today 
are grappling with the total problem of the appli- 
cation of the principles of charity in the most 
thorough going manner, and are slowly moving to- 
wards a solution. 

343. Let us now pass behind the deeds of Christ 
to the deed of Christ. Is it possible to find the spot 
where his hand is resting on the world today? Has 
he taken a large hold upon it or has he merely 
touched the surface? Whither is the world tending, 
so far as influenced by him? What promise of a 
happy outcome, is contained in the present action of 



348 THE PAST AND PRESENT CHRIST 

Christ? For reply it must be said that the present 
action of Christ upon men and society is best de- 
scribed by the word Regeneration. This is his great 
present act. We must seek to make good this claim. 
We must note the tokens of this process in society 
about us and endeavor to show that Christ is the 
force which carries it on. 

344. The first evidence to be noted is the moral 
discontent of the age. Political discontent, indus- 
trial unrest may or may not have had a moral basis 
in the past. Today no one will dispute that the 
moral ideal is in high favor. Its worth is conceded 
by nearly all schools of thought, Christian and non- 
Christian, Agnostic and Theistie. It asserts itself 
in literature. It clamors in the current demand for 
readjustments in the industrial world. It insists 
upon rights, or it preaches duties in all walks of 
life. The assumption behind the movement is that 
society must not and cannot become fixed in any 
form which works injustice, which enshrines wrong 
in statute-books or social custom. 

345. But whence this moral discontent? The 
answer is, it is due to the new ideal of humanity 
which has taken possession of the consciousness of 
the western world. The conspicuous feature of 
ancient civilization was that the state was everything, 
the individual nothing. The ideal state of Plato left 
little play for individuality, especially the indi- 
viduality of the common man. Today on the con- 
trary the worth of the individual is slowly trans- 



THE PERFECT SOCIETY 349 

forming our ideals in political and economic and re- 
ligious life. In the state the right to vote, in the 
industrial world the right to an opportunity, in the 
religious sphere freedom to worship God, are the 
ideals. Liberty, equality, fraternity, the watchwords 
of current endeavor were ideas entirely foreign to 
the ancient world. The right of every man to 
count as one, and the right of no man to count as 
more than one is Professor Nash's way of stating 
it. 6 The man at the bottom is still a man, the man 
at the top is no more than a man. 

346. The conviction of the worth of the indi- 
vidual, the value of humanity as such, has created 
the other conviction that society is capable of de- 
velopment towards a perfect ideal, that it is possi- 
ble for men to live together as brothers, free and 
equal. Out of this conviction has arisen the mod- 
ern missionary. The missionary in all spheres seeks 
to raise up the downmost man to a place suitable for 
humanity at least. The Christian missionary to for- 
eign lands is the finest expression of this missionary 
spirit. He believes that the lowest and vilest may 
be redeemed and goes to the ends of the earth to 
introduce the saving forces to men who know them 
not. 

Is Jesus Christ the author of the moral discontent 
of the world? It is certainly significant that it 
exists on a large scale only where his influence is 
felt. Glancing over the world at large this impres- 
sive fact stands out clearly. But it appears even 



350 THE PAST AND PRESENT CHRIST 

more clearly as we study the Christianity of Christ 
and the early churches. 

347. Christ's doctrine of God suggests the 
answer. The Father of Christ the eternal God had 
a will towards the world. He desired the salvation 
of all men. "He willeth that none should perish." 
The Greeks thought of God as a contemplative 
Being, who had power of thought, but little energy 
of will. The Incarnation was the Christian concep- 
tion, a God with initiative, a God willing and 
anxious to save. The correlative of the incarnation 
is the worth of the soul, the value of the individual 
man. Man must have been of infinite worth to war- 
rant the stooping of God to save him. This worth 
of man underlay the decision of the Nicene council 
pronouncing Christ divine. It was thought that 
thus alone was man's salvation safeguarded. This 
view of the worth of man as such was wholly new to 
the world when Christ came. In it lie the roots of 
the modern moral discontent. 

348. Christ's doctrine of sin was also new, or 
at least found only in Judaism in any similar form. 
Sin became a new and more terrible thing when it 
was seen to be related to God, when men saw it in 
the white light of his holiness. Discontent, the need 
of a better social order and the need of redemption 
were the inevitable corollaries of the teaching of 
Christianity concerning sin. Even the doctrine of 
the Fall of man, as has been urged, acted as a tre- 
mendous stimulus to moral discontent. 7 George 



THE SEEDPLOT OF TRUTH 351 

Eliot somewhere expresses pity for those who have 
no past experience of moral elevation, no lofty ideals, 
or heights from which they may have a sense of 
falling, with which they may compare present fail- 
ure. The doctrine of the Fall kept alive the idea 
that man was made in God's image. Mr. Lecky 
thinks the doctrine of sin was central in the re- 
generating power of the Gospel in Europe. 8 

349. Saved individuals entered the new spiritual 
society, the church. No provision was made for 
humanity as such in the ancient states. Hence a 
new spiritual society was necessary as the seedplot 
of the new ideas. In the church, rich and poor, 
bond and free, patrician and plebeian, Greek, Roman, 
Jew, Barbarian sat together equal before God, heirs 
of God and joint heirs with Christ. Direct ap* 
proach to God in worship, the priesthood of all be- 
lievers, a citizenship of each with identical privileges 
in the Kingdom of God, these were the principles of 
the little spiritual democracies which sprang up al] 
around the Mediterranean in the first century of out 
era. Liberty, equality, fraternity found concrete ex- 
pression in them all. In these little democracies lay 
the germs of most of the great conceptions which 
enrich the political and economic thinking of today. 

350. The idea of liberty, for example, implies 
that men are answerable ultimately to God alone for 
conduct and belief, and that the individual life has 
worth apart from the state. Equality asserts that 
there is a universal element in man reducing all to 



352 THE PAST AND PRESENT CHRIST 

a common level, or rather raising all to a common 
height. Likeness to God in original constitution, 
separation from God through sin, and a common 
need of redemption swept away distinctions of rank 
and caste. Fraternity implied that man's true life 
is a life of love and justice in a universal society in 
time and eternity. Separation of church and state, 
a free church in a free state, was the logical outcome 
of this new ideal of man. For if man has direct 
access to God no priest or state may intervene. More- 
over, a godless state becomes impossible when it 
grants freedom of worship. For freedom of wor- 
ship implies that God is higher than the state. If 
the state, in other words, is the highest authority, 
then no restraint will be upon it in dealing with its 
subjects or citizens even in their religious life. The 
highest interest will control. Expediency will dic- 
tate every policy. The ancient ideal of the state is 
inevitable save on the basis of belief in God. Wor- 
ship of the state is always the practical outcome in 
its absence. In Japan the remnants of this ideal 
are seen today in the boundless devotion of her sol- 
diers. The apotheosis of the Roman Emperor was 
its ancient fruit. It was here the early Christians 
clashed with the world power. 

351. Economic and industrial is closely con- 
nected with religious freedom. What are our new 
teachings in political economy? For one thing that 
society owes each man an opportunity. Equality of 
individual worth carries with it the necessary im- 



ECLIPSE OF THE IDEAL 353 

plication that no man should be crowded to the wall 
from lack of opportunity. The powerful should be 
restrained and held within proper limits. Men dif- 
fer in natural ability, of course, and individuality 
should be respected. But the cunning or wise or 
mighty individual shall not ruthlessly crush his 
feebler brother, for "in the image of God created 
he him." In short, our new political economists are 
telling us that Christ's parable of the talents is the 
ideal of industrial society. Every man according 
to his ability in effort and opportunity, and every 
man according to faithfulness in reward, — this is the 
goal of economic thinking today. It is simply the 
law of the spiritual kingdom of Christ transferred 
to the economic sphere, showing the spirituality of 
all life, and the identity of the principles of the 
divine society in time and eternity. 

352. If it were necessary to show the continuity 
of the Christian ideal of humanity through the cen- 
turies it could be done. A brief sketch is all we shall 
attempt. Unfortunately for Christianity after Con- 
stantine, the church compromised with the state, and 
the sense of her spiritual calling passed in large 
measure out of her consciousness. Perishing with 
spiritual hunger and thirst, like the outcast Hagar 
in the wilderness, Paganism wandered in desolation. 
Like an angel from heaven Christianity met and 
comforted her with the new view of the soul and its 
salvation. But henceforth the angel sought an al- 
liance with her whom she had pointed to the upward 



354 THE PAST AND PBESENT CHEIST 

path, and thereby lost her own knowledge of the 
way. Through many weary centuries the conflict of 
church and state went on. As action and reaction 
are equal, as balance is the law of political as well 
as moral and physical action, so Christianity on the 
wide arena of history became an ecclesiastical empire 
like that of Rome. Once more the worth of the in- 
dividual, Christ's ideal, passed into a long eclipse. 
The organization was everything, the individual 
nothing. Only in recent years has the conception 
of a free church in a free state been made actual 
in legislation and society. 

353. In spite of the decline of Christendom, how- 
ever, and the loss of spiritual power, Christ never 
left himself without witnesses. Through the ages a 
body of people called by his name have kept alive the 
fires on the altar of a spiritual religion. The long 
succession of heretical sects, the Montanists, the 
STovatians, the Donatists, the Albigenses, the Wal- 
densians, the Anabaptists, with greater or less clear- 
ness, stood for the original spiritual ideal of the 
Gospel, that is, the worth of the soul, its salvation 
through Christ, the necessary outcome in a holy 
character and a purified society. Monasticism espe- 
cially, one-sided as it was, stood for this principle 
that the soul has rights as against the ecclesiasticism 
and the state. The world was forsaken because men 
felt that only thus could they maintain fellowship 
with God and realize the ends of existence. Luther, 
the monk, came forth in due time, and brought out 



CHRIST NEVER WITHOUT WITNESSES 355 

into the world again the ancient view, justification 
by faith, the priceless worth of the soul, the ener- 
getic action of God in Christ to save. Henceforth 
Europe shall thrill with a new life, and every move- 
ment shall feel the new moral force which a liber- 
ated Gospel brings with it. Civic and religious free- 
dom, a new moral crusade, a new sense of steward- 
ship, the "white man's burden," the call to education 
and to world-wide evangelization, the rise of the new 
ideal of humanity in the Puritan Revolution in Eng- 
land, and in the American commonwealth, — all 
these follow in due time. At last the Pagan ideal of 
society has been cast off. The individual has come 
to his rights. The worth of man as man is recog- 
nized. "The rank is but the guinea stamp," the 
gold is the man beneath. The state and the church 
were made for man, not man for the state. Society 
can be, must be, reorganized in the interests of hu- 
manity, not of classes or castes. The kingdom of 
God is coming, the "far-off divine event" is the only 
goal of history. History itself is dynamic. It 
moves and progresses. 

Now this is the Gestum Christi, his great achieve- 
ment. He has fused together the parts of the 
world. He has unified the forces of history and 
put life into them. With boundless patience he has 
awaited his day, when rebellious and intractable hu- 
manity should become plastic under his hand. The 
pull of his mighty leadership is felt today through- 



356 THE PAST AND PRESENT CHRIST 

out the western world and is beginning to be felt 
in the far east. 

354. Various are the modes of recognizing his 
leadership. Social and labor reformers sometimes 
scoff at the church, but they exalt Christ. Uni- 
tarians deny that he is so great as orthodoxy has 
claimed, but maintain that his character is imitable 
and that as our great Example he is the hope of 
the world. Doubters of the metaphysical side of 
the doctrine of his person surrender to the inspira- 
tion of his transcendent character, and exclaim, 

"If Jesus is a man, 

And only a man, I say, 
Of all mankind I will follow Him 

And follow Him alway. 

"If Jesus is a God 

-And the only God, I swear 
I will follow Him through heaven and hell, 
The earth, the sea and the air." 

In science, also, men are beginning to see that na- 
ture must finally be set forth in terms of Christ. 
The struggle for the life of others, and not merely 
the self-centered "struggle for life," must be recog- 
nized in nature. Our modern poets are coming 
under his sway. For what is the message of Lowell 
or Wordsworth or Tennyson or Browning but a 
glorification of him as the highest hope of man. 
Philosophy, too, in certain of its recent idealistic 



WAYS OF RECOGNIZING CHEIST 337 

forms tends more and more to crown him as the 
supreme revelation of the total significance of the 
world. 

Evangelical Christians, of course, regard Christ in 
their own way and they think it is the only adequate 
way. He represents for them God's action in his- 
tory. To them he is the creator of the saints of all 
ages. Conversion, the regeneration of the individual 
life, is his typical work. His moral supremacy on 
the broad stage of history grows out of his moral 
and religious supremacy in the soul. One has well 
said that the regeneration of the individual is the 
true genesis of the social conscience. His first com- 
ing had but one logical outcome, and that was his 
constant and continued coming in moral and spirit- 
ual power. Again, his constant and continued com- 
ing now can but issue in his second coming in due 
time. The phenomenon of his first works as repre- 
sented in regenerated men and societies is being re- 
produced today. The sublime conception of a regen- 
erated world is taking fresh hold of his people. His 
divine work, in part today, is the foreign missionary 
enterprise. This on the one side, and, on the other, 
the moral discontent of the age, already outlined, are 
the opposite poles of the movement he is leading. 
Each alike signalizes his grasp upon the world's 
thought and life. Each implies the vastness of the 
salvation he reveals and accomplishes, and the neces- 
sity of his personal presence to carry the movement 
to a successful issue. 



358 THE PAST AND PRESENT CHEIST 

355. The argument for Christ and Christianity 
which we urge here, we must now say in closing, is 
not the many things he has done so much as the one 
thing he is doing, not results alone, but potentiali- 
ties. There is conclusive and even overwhelming 
evidence of his present energy in the world. No 
precious or desirable item in the world's hopes are 
wanting in the cargo of spiritual goods which he is 
steering across the sea of time. No storm has yet 
made shipwreck of him and his. There is no sign 
in the sky that any storm can ever arise, and past 
history shows that there is no hidden rock, unknown 
to him, which has power to bring on permanent dis- 
aster. The divine voice which broke the silence of 
the ages when he spoke two thousand years ago, 
speaks today; the great hope which then crossed the 
earth and led captive the hearts of men looms larger 
than in all the past. The generations will file after 
him in long procession and 1 stand at last with him, 
the older brother, inside the Father's House. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

356. In the investigation of nature one of the 
chief difficulties is that we are obliged to study any 
force or phenomenon in combination with other 
forces or phenomena. Multiple effects are usually 
seen as the product of multiple causes. A great step 
forward is made when a particular cause and its 
effect can be disentangled from its companion causes 
and effects. The light of a heavenly body when re- 
solved into its elements by means of spectrum analy- 
sis is far more adequately understood than when 
viewed simply through the telescope. So also in 
other departments of nature. The important point 
is to pierce through the cloud of attendant appear- 
ances to the essential inner principle. Sometimes 
this principle is so subtle and elusive that it can 
never be detected save as imbedded in something 
more gross and portable. The new force radium 
comes usually in combination with something else, 
as in a bromide or chloride, and yet its real nature 
is in a measure understood. 

Christianity is like the natural order here. As a 
cause in the world it is often difficult to disentangle 
it from other causes. There is one manifestation of 

859 



360 ARGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

it, however, where this statement does not hold. In 
the missionary enterprise the essential Christian 
motive and end are clearly seen. Its unlikeness to 
other forces in the social and moral order here 
stands out in sharply defined outline. Properly un- 
derstood the missionary enterprise is the true inter- 
pretation of Christianity. As such it points hack 
to the true origin of this religion and to the nature 
of the force which operates in it. We shall now 
endeavor to define and exhibit the missionary move- 
ment in several important aspects. It will thus ap- 
pear that it is not to be accounted for on the plane 
of naturalism, but is rather the result of a divine 
Power. 

357. For the sake of clearness we consider the 
missionary movement under the following heads : Its 
conception of its task, its motive, its method, the 
energy with which it has wrought, and its results. 
First we notice the conception of the missionary task. 
The Jews were a narrow people. Yet throughout 
their sacred literature ever and anon a note of uni- 
versalism is sounded. This universalism fell like a 
sunbeam across the consciousness of Abraham in 
the promise that in him and his seed all the families 
of the earth should be blessed. It breaks forth in 
the prayer of Solomon and in the somewhat mar- 
tial psalms of David. It is heard sometimes in the 
energetic and vivid message of Habakkuk, and 
reaches its most impressive announcement in Isaiah's 
"wild seraphic fire/' But the Jewish people never 



THE MISSIONARY CONCEPTION 361 

assimilated the idea. It was a seed which fell on 
stony ground until Jesus vitalized it and made it 
grow. "Go ye into all the world and preach the 
Gospel to every creature," was his final command. 
Through Paul the idea of the universal destination 
of the Gospel conquered. In conquering it saved 
Christianity itself from becoming a mere Jewish 
sect. Thus did its universal principles become de- 
tached from Jewish narrowness. Paul died at Rome 
where all the highways of the known world met. 
"Let me go to Rome," was the great apostle's plea 
for many years, "and if I may not go unbound, put 
the fetters on me and let me go in chains." Thus 
some one has indicated the spirit of the great apostle. 
Paul's spiritual vision was clear. He perceived the 
strategic position of Rome for the missionary move- 
ment. Having reached Rome, potentially the Gospel 
had reached the world. Rome was the spiritual heart 
of mankind, whose pulsations sent the life blood to 
the utmost extremities of the body. 

Consider the audacity, nay the folly, of the hand- 
ful of Jewish preachers after Christ's departure in 
their conception of their spiritual undertaking. 
What did they assume ? Simply this : authority over 
the entire race, spiritual dominion over every nation, 
and kindred and tribe and tongue. To measure their 
apparent resources against the proposed result is 
simply to convict them of madness. Yet observe this 
other assumption of theirs, viz., that God is him- 
self a missionary and that the center of the current 



362 ARGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

of history is moral and spiritual. This enterprise 
anticipates most strikingly the modern view of the 
world as taught by science. The unity of the race 
and the solidarity of human society lie at the heart 
of its ideal. With divine insight it recognized that 
the law of progress is ethical, that nothing perma- 
nently counts as progress which is unethical. It is 
often asserted that the early preachers expected a 
speedy coming of the end of the world. But assured- 
ly their missionary programme allows room for as 
extended a period as may be necessary to accom- 
plish the result. 

358. In spite of the appearances against these 
men, history has vindicated them. Today, after a 
missionary triumph steadily advancing nearly two 
thousand years to a new world-view and to a new 
fullness of times, their undertaking is being re- 
peated on a vaster scale, and on a vaster stage of 
action. 

The missionary task, then, which Christianity pro- 
poses for itself is the introduction of spiritual and 
regenerating forces throughout the world. It pro- 
poses to create a type of character in the individual 
and society, which is by common consent the highest 
known to man. This ideal dates back to Christ him- 
self and has had a continuity running through the 
Christian centuries. It has never since New Testa- 
ment days appeared in purer form than today. The 
moral grandeur of the undertaking has never moved 
the people of Christ more powerfully or exhibited it- 



ITS EXALTED MOTIVE 3G3 

self on a broader stage of action than in our own 
generation. Says Mr. Dennis : "With the Spirit and 
Providence of God as its allies, it seems to be prepar- 
ing for a single-handed and simultaneous struggle 
with every giant system of religious sophistry which 
for long centuries has held the human mind in dark- 
ness and bondage. It is face to face today with every 
great dominant religion of the earth, and it will 
soon be a question of the survival of the fittest and 
the triumph of the best." 1 Thus the first Gospel 
sounds out afresh. As the electric energy bears the 
cablegram beneath Atlantic waves from American 
to European shores, so spiritual energy has borne the 
message of the "Apostle to the Gentiles" through 
the shadows of two milleniums to this generation of 
Christians who have taken it up afresh under the 
same sense of exhilaration and joy of conflict between 
false systems and the Word. 

359. Observe in the next place the divinely im- 
planted motive of missions. The missionary move- 
ment is the highest type of altruism known to man- 
kind. Givers to missions and missionaries them- 
selves are above all reproach in their motive and 
aim. I refer, of course, to the movement as such 
and not to individual exceptions. If there is in it an 
element which can be properly designated as sel- 
fish it has not been pointed out. The career of a 
Carey or a Judson or a John G. Paton or of scores 
of others who might be named, would forever redeem 



364 AKGUMENT FEOM MISSIONS 

the enterprise as such from any element of the base 
or sordid. 

All men recognize the beauty and worth of altru- 
ism. Prof. Huxley praised it and held that it can 
be realized only by conflict with the "cosmic 
process." The struggle for the life of others does, 
indeed, find place in the animal kingdom within 
narrow limits. Here, as in so many other respects, 
our students of nature are finding likenesses between 
brutes and men. Laughter, and language, and the 
power of reason, are no longer recognized universally 
as marking man off from these in a class by himself. 
It is true that this conclusion is not established on 
a firm scientific basis, but it is quite commonly held 
that many of the old lines of demarcation between 
man and beast have vanished. 

The altruistic motive of missions, however, does 
introduce us to a totally new moral world. Neither 
worship nor universal love is found among animals. 
It is as natural for the lioness to rend and tear 
those of another species as to defend her own young. 
Across this great gulf no beast's foot has passed. 
Here is a path, indeed, "which no fowl knoweth and 
no vulture's eye hath seen." Indeed, the missionary 
impulse is non-human in the sense that non-Chris- 
tians as a rule have no interest in it, and the sub- 
jects of it all assert that its origin is supernatural. 
This is, indeed, the secret of the Lord, which is with 
them that fear him, a white stone from him to be- 



PRIMARILY LOVE TO CHRIST 365 

1 levers which has written on it the name which none 
other knoweth. 

360. Primarily this motive is love to Christ. It 
is created by him, and sustained by him. Its faith 
in God and man is his deathless faith. Its concep- 
tion of the brotherhood of man is not the brother- 
hood of a common and a hopeless suffering, as in 
Buddhism, nor the brotherhood of grim endurance 
as in Stoicism, but rather the brotherhood of a com- 
mon likeness to God and hope of immortality. Sin 
and its dire consequences create the need and Christ 
himself is the sinner's only hope. 

3G1. We do not here contrast missionary toils or 
sacrifices with those of others, but rather the mis- 
sionary motive. Others have endured as great hard- 
ships as the soldiers of the cross. Speaking of the 
early English explorers whom he designates "Eng- 
land's forgotten worthies/' Mr. Froude says: "Life 
with them was no summer holiday, but a holy sacri- 
fice offered up to duty, and what their Master sent 
was welcome." Then after describing old age and 
praising it, Mr. Froude continues: "God forbid we 
should not call it beautiful. It is beautiful, but not 
the most beautiful. There is another life, hard, 
rough and thorny, trodden with bleeding feet and 
aching brow; the life of which the cross is the sym- 
bol, a battle which no peace follows this side the 
grave ; which the grave gapes to finish before the vic- 
tory is won; and — strange that it should be so— 
this is the highest life of man. And so it was with 



366 ARGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

the servants of England in the sixteenth century. 
Their life was a long battle either with the elements 
or with men; and it was enough for them to fulfill 
their work and to pass away in the hour when God 
had nothing more to bid them do." 2 

362. If the above eulogy does not exaggerate the 
merit of Drake and Raleigh and John Davis and Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, who were willing to die for their 
country in strange lands among wild peoples, surely 
in a far higher sense it applies to that army of men 
and women who for the love of man as man for 
Jesus' sake, have counted not their lives dear unto 
themselves and have endured equal suffering. Some 
of the early Spanish explorers were guilty of cruelty 
almost beyond belief in their dealings with the 
natives in new countries. DeSoto burned his native 
guides in Florida after they had served his ends. 
The English were not always exempt from the same 
charge of cruelty. Many of these men were noble 
patriots, and we should not wish to take one laurel 
from their brows. Yet their enterprise was one in 
which lust and the greed of gold mingled too often 
as corrupting motives. The exploitation of new 
lands and peoples commercially, which was the issue 
of their toils, was far from unselfish. In short, this 
enterprise, so admired by Mr. Froude, was totally 
different from that of the missionaries. Here is 
the language of one of the very first of these lovers 
of their kind whose careers the world yet fails to 
appreciate. The Apostle Paul says of himself : "We 



LOFTIER MISSIONARY DEVOTION 367 

are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as 
though God were entreating by us: we beseech you 
on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God." Then 
describing his motive, spirit and aim, he goes on to 
say, "Giving no occasion of stumbling in anything 
that our ministration be not blamed; but in every- 
thing commending ourselves, as ministers of God, 
in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in dis- 
tresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in 
labors, in watchings, in fastings; in pureness, in 
knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the 
Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, 
in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness 
on the right hand and on the left, by glory and dis- 
honor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers 
and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as 
dying and behold we live; as chastened and not 
killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, 
yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet pos- 
sessing all things." Then further he enjoins, "Hav- 
ing, therefore, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse 
ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, per- 
fecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. v. 20; 
vii. 1). 

In this language of the apostle to the Gentiles we 
have the heart of Christian missions. "The ideal 
missionary," says one, "must have four passions — 
first, a passion for the truth; a passion for Christ; 
a passion for the souls of men, and a passion for self- 
sacrifice. And I may say that the history of mis- 



368 ARGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

sions in the last century has shown not one nor 
fifty nor one hundred, but ' thousands of men and 
women that have filled out the grand ideal of the 
mission service in the mission life." 8 

Now, this missionary impulse is of the very essence 
of Christianity, and it is the greatest thing in the 
world. Over and over again through the ages these 
men of the cross have brought back life and power 
to a worldly church. The spirit is ever the same, 
whether seen as in a Father Damon going to live 
among lepers, or as in Moravian brethren taking the 
place of slaves in order to win slaves in the West 
Indies, or as in Livingstone dying in Africa, whose 
constant assertion was that the end of geographical 
exploration is evangelization. These men are 
Christ's heroes, who having put their hands to the 
plow look not back, and who till the harvest field of 
the world; perishing often by the way; waiting 
patiently for the early and the latter rain ; gazing 
pathetically downward for the long delayed tender 
blades of promise; often compelled to measure time 
as God measures it, a thousand years as a day, and a 
day as a thousand years; yet knowing that they or 
their successors will reap in due season if they faint 
not; "toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross 
that turns not back;" yet through all peaceful and 
glad of heart, serene and sunny in spirit, content to 
wait for the eternal garner, and never doubting that 
in the end, with the angels, they shall rejoice in the 
final harvest home. We search modern life in vain 



METHOD OF PBOPAGATION 369 

for any moral or spiritual movement which can for 
a moment be compared with it, save when we find 
the same passion at work in the energy of a pure 
Christianity at home. For this is the spirit of all 
true Christian living, and this spirit is an alien and 
a stranger to the spirit which dwells in the world of 
the natural man and society. 

363. In the next place we must consider briefly 
the missionary enterprise in its method of propaga- 
tion. 

First of all a confession must be made. During 
the Christian centuries the name of Christ has some- 
times been coupled with forms of propaganda which 
achieved their triumphs by the sword. At others the 
torch and the fagot have compelled obedience to an 
ecclesiastical power wearing the garments of the 
church. In so far as this has been true a pseudo- 
Christianity has usurped the place of the true. These 
methods were very human, and while sometimes ac- 
companied by an intense zeal, they exhibit no real 
kinship to the spirit of Jesus Christ. The only 
sword ever employed by him is the sword which, ac- 
cording to the apocalyptic image, proceeds from his 
mouth, the Word of the living God. But the un- 
christian methods of missions do not invalidate the 
true. They break the continuity of the Christian 
movement wherever they arise. Our own day has 
witnessed a remarkable return to the mission method 
and missionary aim of Christ himself. 

364. What, then, is the Christian method of 



370 ARGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

propagation? It is so simple that when taken out 
of its connection it seems ridiculous, but when re- 
garded in connection with its antecedents and its 
consequents it is most sublime. Waiving all detailed 
account of the contents of the Gospel call we will let 
the author of Ecce Homo give us the answer. The 
way in which Christianity has been and is being 
propagated may be summed up in one word : the an- 
nouncement by Christ himself in the first place and 
afterwards through his followers to all men every- 
where of this brief message, "I am your King." 
Simply this with all it implies of the cross and the 
ethical teaching is the Gospel. This has conquered 
men from the beginning. Thus has Christ founded a 
theocracy which is spreading over the earth. Says 
the author of Ecce Homo : "Some of the leading or- 
ganizers of the world have said, '1 will work my 
way to supreme power, and then I will execute great 
plans/ But Christ overleaped the first stage alto- 
gether. He did not work his way to royalty, but sim- 
ply said to all men, 'I am your King/ He did not 
struggle forward to a position in which he could 
found a new state, but simply founded it." The same 
writer remarks also that in contemplating Christ's 
scheme as a whole "three things strike us with aston- 
ishment. The first is its prodigious originality. 
What other man has had the courage or elevation of 
mind to say, 'I will build up a state by the mere 
force of my will without help from the kings of the 
world and without the use of the secondary causes 



THE VOICE OF ETERNAL TRUTH 371 

which unite men together — unity of interest or 
speech, or blood relationship/ We are also aston- 
ished at the calm confidence with which the scheme 
was carried out. We are equally astonished at the 
prodigious success of the scheme. It is not more 
certain that Christ preesnted himself to men as 
the founder, legislator and judge of a divine society 
than it is certain that men have accepted him in 
these characters, that the divine society has been 
founded, that it has lasted nearly two thousand 
years, that it has extended over a large and the 
most highly civilized portion of the earth's surface, 
and that it continues full of vigor at the present 
day." 4 

365. There is but one explanation of the answer 
men have given to Christ's astounding call and com- 
mand. And that is that he knew the human soul as 
no other ever knew it. When he said to men, "I am 
your King," he spoke as the voice of eternal truth. 
The great deep of human need echoed the call of the 
great deep of God's voice. The one thing matched 
the other, as if the parts had once been separated 
and now at length had found each other. It was 
man welcoming back, so to speak, a lost segment of 
his own nature. Christ and man are organically one. 
Man thinks his supreme need is freedom. In his 
deeper moods and struggles he knows that his su- 
preme need is a Master, who can enable him to win 
moral victory and thus find true freedom. Christ 



372 ARGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

is the true answer to that need. And this explains 
the succcess of the Christian propaganda. 

366. We consider next the energy with which the 
missionary spirit has wrought and the success it has 
won. These two characteristics may well be treated 
together, as they are fundamentally one. The divine 
origin of this missionary impulse is seen in this, 
that it is the inevitable fruit of the new birth. When 
Christians or church organizations become engrossed 
in political or secular ambitions, and war with the 
state, missionary zeal wanes. But when God deals di- 
rectly with the soul in regenerating power at once 
the sympathies reach out to the lost and an aroused 
civic and commercial conscience appears. This was 
the genesis of New Testament missions. The Mora- 
vians, those marvels of missionary zeal and consecra- 
tion, owe their origin to Pietism, the seventeenth 
century revival of the inner life which brought back 
the soul's direct experience of Christ and God. Spener 
and his followers insisted upon prayer, fellow- 
ship with God, and Bible study; in short, the direct 
relation of every believing soul with God. 6 William 
Carey's unconquerable missionary conviction, by 
which he aroused English and American Christians 
at the end of the eighteenth century, was born of 
the same direct action of God upon his own soul. 

367. This missionary impulse reached all the 
nearer objects in reaching across the seas to pagan 
peoples. Orphanages, hospitals, emancipation of 
slaves, prison reform, Sunday schools for neglected 



EMBRACES ALL REFORMS 373 

city children, agitation for better administration of 
charities, and scores of other reform movements 
were set in motion along with the missionary enter- 
prise. When we find the essential law of this activ- 
ity, its real inner meaning, it is simply the law of 
the cross, dying to live, a holy purpose to redeem 
other men, because Christ has redeemed us. The 
church of Christ has no other meaning or justifica- 
tion than this. Every local band of worshipers, who 
understand their highest mission understands it thus. 
Such a church has ever been in evidence and has 
contrasted with every other organization on earth. 
The Moravians have three mottoes : "Every believer's 
work is witnessing for God ; every believer's home is 
where he can do the most good ; every believer's cross 
is self-denial for the Master's sake." 6 

In the early days the same was true of the church 
of Christ. It stood alone among the so-called benevo- 
lent organizations of the early Christian centuries. 
Asks Professor Sohm : "Where are the other count- 
less unions which the great need of the masses once 
called into being in the Eoman Empire? Where 
are they now ? The wind of history has swept them 
away. Long ago, many centuries ago, not a trace 
of them was left. The Christian church, which 
rested on no exclusive nationality, endures solely in 
consequence of the living power of its religion. 

The history of the world 
Is the world's judgment.' 



374 AEGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

No other religion has had power to guide the 
progress of our culture save Christianity alone. On 
its side were neither Roman legions nor ancient 
learning, but the power of divine truth, which is 
mightier than all the powers of our earthly life." 7 

368. The missionary ideal and motive have en- 
listed many of the choicest spirits in all history. Paul 
and Augustine, and Columba, and Boniface, and 
Ziegenbalg, and Carey, and Judson, and Duff, and 
Morrison of China, and Livingstone and Mackay of 
Uganda, and a countless host of others whom I may 
not name, stand upon a moral and spiritual eminence 
which the world today gladly recognizes. 

369. These men have given to many heathen peo- 
ples new literatures. Bible translation has been one 
of their herculean labors. Today no less than 400 
of these are in circulation throughout the earth. About 
3,286,834 Bibles or parts of Bibles are distributed 
annually on mission fields. 8 Missions have been the 
mother of education everywhere. The Christian doc- 
trine of God and the Christian principles of salva- 
tion demand enlightment. The deepest inward bond 
unites the educational and the evangelizing move- 
ment. The logical outcome is seen in the new in- 
terest in education wherever missionaries have gone. 

Medical missions, and other forms of philanthropic 
endeavor inevitably attend the missionary advance. 
The bodies of men as well as their souls receive at- 
tention. Orphanages, hospitals, institutions for the 



MISSIONAEY PATIENCE 375 

care of unfortunate child- widows and others in India 
mark the growth of the missionary life. 

370. Missionary laborers have been marvels of pa- 
tience. They have sometimes waited from one to six 
or seven years for their first convert. This is owing 
to the necessity often of creating a Christian lan- 
guage, and of well-nigh recreating the religious 
reason of peoples who are without a knowledge of the 
true God. Slow and tedious is the task of clearing 
the jungle of heathen superstition and digging 
foundations for the temple of the living God. And 
yet the success of the effort is beyond all question. 
Dr. Jas. S. Dennis has given many and convincing 
proofs of this in his account of the creation by 
missionary effort of a new type of individual charac- 
ter. 9 Civilization, indeed, in all its higher forms, 
is the proper fruit of Christianity. One missionary 
describes the effect of the conversion of a savage Zulu 
as a desire for clothing. He has a new self-respect 
and sense of worth. He secures a calico shirt and 
then a pair of duck trousers to cover his nakedness; 
then a three-legged stool to avoid soiling his trousers 
by sitting on the ground. "Then," says the mission- 
ary, "that man is about nine thousand miles above 
the natives around him." 

371. Civilization is the clothing of intelligence 
and character. Men remain children in large meas- 
ure until Christianity makes them men indeed. The 
commercial value of missions is beyond dispute. The 
missionary is the best friend of the manufacturer. 



376 ARGUMENT FROM MISSIONS 

He who creates a demand for shirts, trousers and 
stools is an advance agent of the manufacturer of 
cotton goods and furniture. 

The modern Protestant missionary movement is 
somewhat more than a hundred years old. The mis- 
sionary societies now practically cover the earth in 
their operations. They employ 13,371 misisonaries ; 
69,670 native workers; they have 24,337 places of 
worship; 23,527 elementary schools; 960 institu- 
tions for higher education; 553 hospitals and dis- 
pensaries ; 147 publishing or printing establishments, 
and there are 2,219,291 professing Christians. 10 The 
contributions of all Protestant Christians to foreign 
missions anually is about $17,000,000.00. Of course 
these figures do not begin to suggest even the value 
of the work done, in foundations laid, adherents won, 
influence gained, and leaven introduced into the so- 
cial masses in foreign lands. 

Christianity has occupied all the strategic points 
of the earth with missions and missionaries. As an 
army of moral conquest, in the matter of the dis- 
position of the forces, the time seems to have arrived 
for the greatest advance of history. Indeed, that 
advance is already well begun. During the two hun- 
dred years between 1500 and 1700 Christianity added 
more to its numbers than during the first thousand 
years; from 1700 to 1800 it gained nearly as many 
adherents as during the first thousand years. Since 
the beginning of the present century Christianity has 
much more than doubled. It has gained nearly three 



FRESH ENERGY OF MISSIONS 577 

times as many during the past ninety years as it did 
during the first fifteen hundred years. 11 

372. The foregoing is an extremely inadequate 
sketch of missions. Our limits of space forbid en- 
largement of the theme. It is hoped, however, that 
enough has been said to suggest the exalted and di- 
vine motive and energy of Christian missions and to 
forecast future triumphs equal to any of the past and 
even greater. The missionary enterprise is the monu- 
mental evidence today before the eyes of all men 
that Christianity, so far from being a spent force, 
seems rather to be girding itself for its supreme effort 
in regenerating the world in Christ's image. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CHRIST COMPARED WITH MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA. 

In recent years two systems of belief have been 
frequently compared with Christianity. Moham- 
medanism and Buddhism are, next to the religion of 
Christ, the most impressive spiritual movements in 
historic time. One hesitates to attempt a compari- 
son of these with Christianity in the form of a mere 
sketch within the limits of a few pages. The spe- 
cialist in comparative religion would doubtless assert 
that many volumes might well be devoted to any 
attempt to exhaust the subject. Nevertheless, a very 
brief survey of the distinguishng marks of these re- 
ligions, ought to prove valuable at least by way of 
suggestion. 

373. First let us consider Mohammedanism. Few 
men of historic importance have been as variously 
estimated as Mohammed. We are not obliged to 
agree with Carlyle's high estimate of him, on the 
one hand, nor yet with some are we obliged to regard 
him as altogether an impostor, on the other. He 
was undoubtedly a great man in several respects. 
Sincere he must have been in his sense of a call and 
misson. It is equally certain that he had clear vision 
of some great truths. But no excellence in other re- 

87ft 



POINTS CONCEDED 379 

spects can blind us to his vices. His claim to be 
the inspired prophet of God breaks down under the 
strain of the direct and specific "revelations" which 
sanctioned the indulgence of his lust, and his robbing 
other men of their wives. Old Testament prophets 
were sometimes evil men or fell into great sin, but 
they did not claim inspired warrant for their sin. 

374. Let us concede at once the value of the 
Mohammedan doctrine of one God, and his success- 
ful crusade against idolatry. The times were ripe in 
Arabia for such a movement, and it was a great 
achievement in the spiritual realm to purge out the 
worship of idols permanently and to lift many tribes 
to the level of a Monotheistic faith. 

Again, we must concede the power and genius of 
the man who has succeeded in making the volume of 
his alleged revelations the one book of two hundred 
million members of the human race. The necessity 
for the study of the Koran has fostered elementary 
education in Mohammedan countries. History, how- 
ever, fails to justify the oft vaunted preeminence of 
Mohammedanism in its scientific and literary spirit. 
One or two brief periods of the manifestation of such 
a spirit in fourteen hundred years scarcely justify the 
claim. 

It may be asserted also that no political movement 
has surpassed Mohammedanism in its successful use 
of religion as its instrument. There has never been 
a closer union of church and state. In one aspect 
Mohammedanism is the church making use of the 



380 CHRIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

state for its ends, and in another the state realizing 
itself through the church. Neither could have suc- 
ceeded without the other. Our interest here is not 
in its political but in its religious ideals. 

375. There are five leading practices which are 
religiously binding upon all Mohammedans. 1. The 
recital of Kalina, or Confession: There is but one 
God and Mohammed is his prophet. 2. Observance 
of the five daily periods of prayer. 3. The giving of 
alms. 4. The fast of Ramadan. 5. Pilgrimage to 
Mecca. 1 

There is an aspect of rigor and strenuous devotion 
in Mohammedan practice which challenges admira- 
tion. During the fast of Ramadan there is for one 
month from half-past two in the morning until 
night an entire abstinence from food and drink, no 
matter how heavy the burden of labor. With his 
face turned towards Mecca, his body prostrate, five 
times daily the devout Mussulman prays. Moreover, 
there is a boldness and openness in these devotions 
which is regardless of time, place or circumstances, 
contrasting sharply with the reticence and timidity 
of many Christians in their public confession. 

Mohammedanism insists much upon almsgiving 
and provides freely for the poor, although this is 
collected by law like any other tax, and it leaves 
little play for spontaneity and the principle of vol- 
untariness. 

The abstinence of the Moslem from wine and 



DEFECTIVE VIEW OF GOD 381 

strong drink is another feature of his life deserv- 
ing of strong commendation. 

The obligation of pilgrimage to Mecca once in a 
lifetime imposed by the Koran upon Moslems can 
scarcely be commended in any aspect of it. It im- 
poses fearful hardships upon many who are unable 
to make it. It partakes of the quality of the lower 
heathen forms of religious devotion and not of a 
spiritual and advanced faith. And this leads to 
our next consideration, and that is its defects when 
compared with Christianity. 

376. The most important idea in any form of 
religious belief is its conception of God. The Mo- 
hammedan does not equal the Jewish idea of God, 
to say nothing of the Christian. The God of Mo- 
hammedanism is described by the conception of a 
predestinating Omnipotence. Power is God's chief 
attribute. His decrees are fixed and irresistible. 
The holiness and love of God recede far into the 
background. The laws of the Koran are the ex- 
pression not of a holy nature but of a sovereign will. 
They thus partake of the nature of rules rather than 
principles. They are statutes rather than ideals. 
Belief in God's decrees made great soldiers of Mo- 
hammedans. The absence of belief in his holiness 
and love makes them pitiless soldiers. Mohammed 
constantly insisted on the mercy of God, but this 
mercy was displayed in the relaxing of the demands 
of high morality for weak humanity. On the con- 
trary, the Christian ideal is never relaxed. Weak 



382 CHBIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

humanity, however, receives divine reinforcement in 
order to conform to it. Mohammedanism , presents 
no working conception of God equal to the lofty 
ethical monotheism of Israel, while the infinite ten- 
derness and love of Christ's revelation of God, com- 
bined with lofty and inflexible holiness, are incom- 
parably superior. 

377. In intimate relation with the conception of 
God is that of life and morals. Mohammedanism is 
far below Christianity in its view of sin. If God's 
arbitrary will makes a thing right, then there can 
be no* deep essential distinction between right and 
wrong. Hence Mohammedan ethics are far below 
the Christian. The practice of concubinage and the 
facility of divorce, along with polygamy, are in- 
stances. In the Koran we read as follows: "0 
prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives unto whom 
thou hast given their dower, and also the slaves 
which thy right hand possesseth, of the booty which 
God hath granted thee; and the daughters of thy 
uncles and the daughters of thy aunts, both on thy 
father's side and on thy mother's side, who have fled 
with thee from Mecca, and any other believing 
woman, if she give herself unto the prophet; in case 
the prophet desireth to take her to wife." 2 In the 
second and fourth chapters also may be found in- 
structions regarding divorce and polygamy. 

Mohammedanism appeals exclusively to the hope 
of reward and to the fear of punishment. Its re- 
wards and punishments, moreover, are on a low moral 



PBOPAGATION BY FORCE 383 

plane. The Mohammedan heaven is a place of 
sensual enjoyment. 8 Thus it fails to provide for 
the higher spiritual life of man. The principle of 
external reward and punishment is adapted to men 
on the lower moral plane, and Christianity makes a 
wise use of it. But Christianity never sensualizes 
the hope of man after the manner of Mohammedan- 
ism. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God," is the core of Christ's ethical idealism. 
He thus provides for the loftiest ranges of moral 
effort and inspires to the highest and best. This is 
but a fresh instance of the essential nature of Chris- 
tianity which is not a set of statutory enactments 
touching life at this or that point, but a universal 
principle encompassing every need and condition of 
man. 

378. In keeping with its idea of God, sin and 
character, Mohammedanism employs physical instead 
of moral means for its own propagation. This has 
been denied by some recent apologists for the religion 
of Islam.* But all its history, and particularly its 
early history, is against the denial. Moreover, the 
Koran expressly provides for the promulgation of 
the faith by force of arms. The reader is referred 
in proof of these statements to the second, forty- 
eighth and sixty-sixth chapters of the Koran. Those 
who professed the Christian religion have, in blind 
and wicked zeal, sometimes employed force in ex- 
tending it, but Christians do not to-day defend it. 



384 CHBIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

and all its literary sources, its inspired records in 
the New Testament, condemn it. 

379. The great religions of the world have been 
personal religions. Confucius, Zoroaster, Mohammed, 
Buddha, Christ, are the names associated with their 
origin. The purer forms of these faiths always par- 
take of the character of their founders. Person- 
ality is the great constructive force of the world of 
men. Mohammed's personality was magnetic and 
forceful. He seized the reins of power at an aus- 
picious moment and inspired his followers with a 
zeal like unto his own, utilizing the military instinct 
of man for his ends. His propaganda became more 
political than religious, and we are to seek the causes 
of its success on the ethnological, sociological and 
political plane as much as on the moral and re- 
ligious. In moral excellence or religious insight there 
is no possible ground for comparing him with Jesus 
Christ. Mohammed was a legalistic, moral and re- 
ligious, and political reformer. Christ was and is a 
world Regenerator. Mohammedanism occupies a 
fixed and limited place on the landing of the stairs 
of man's upward reformatory movements. The re- 
ligion of Christ stretches across the history of the 
race. Mohammedanism lifted men a little higher 
than they were but left them there. Christianity, 
ever dissatisfied with present attainment, is inspiring 
men to-day as never before. 

380. Mohammedanism combines religious zeal 
with the natural love of conquest and engenders a 



KISE OF BUDDHA 385 

most stubborn form of human pride and self-com- 
placency. This is the secret of the fixity of its char- 
acter and of its imperviousness to outside influences. 
Mohammedan countries are unprogressive countries. 
Christianity creates ethical unrest, resulting in hu- 
mility and ever deepening aspirations towards God. 
The religion of Islam is external, legal, mechanical; 
that of Christ is inward and vital. One relaxes law 
to accommodate weak men; the other regenerates 
weak men and enables them progressively to attain 
a divine ideal. One is the product of a human 
genius like other great movements bearing the stamp 
of an imposing personality, who in due time died 
and slept with his fathers ; the other is a divine reve- 
lation through a transcendent Personality, who is 
immanent through his Holy Spirit in the world to- 
day. The religion of the Arabian prophet, in the 
final estimate of men, will be to Christianity as 
"moonlight unto sunlight and as water unto wine." 
381. We must next consider, though all too 
briefly, a few of the leading characteristics of 
Buddhism. In the fifth century before Christ, arose 
Gautama, who later became the Buddha and founder 
of Buddhism. Like all the great "seekers after 
God," he was profoundly in earnest, possessed un- 
usual spiritual insight and achieved some very re- 
markable results. His personal force must have 
been very great, though materials for the construc- 
tion of an authentic biography are quite scanty. The 
make of the human spirit is such that when a great 



3S6 CHBIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

soul begins a thoroughgoing search fop religious or 
moral truth some fragment of reality is usually the 
reward of his labors. Many of these fragments have 
been struck out of the experiences of men in the 
storm and stress of their passionate and eager search 
for soul-rest and a knowledge of eternal things. The 
uniform badge of them all, however, is their frag- 
mentary character, their inadequacy to meet man's 
total need. Christ's revelation is God's answer to 
this quest of man, and as such it has slaked every 
form of soul thirst yet awakened in the human spirit. 

The connection of Buddhism with its environment 
in its earliest development seems tolerably well 
made out. In part it was the result of the religious 
and moral idiosyncracies of a great personality; in 
part the result of reaction against existing abuses; 
and in part the application of a philosophic concep- 
tion, current in his day, to the problems of life in a 
new way. 

382. The first impulse of the Buddha was from 
within, his own longing for peace, the spiritual hun- 
ger and thirst of his own soul especially in view 
of the pain and misery of life. It is related that his 
religious career began as a result of four visions. 
One was the vision of a decrepit old man who im- 
pressed him with the inevitable decay of the human 
body; another was of an emaciated invalid whose 
condition marked the tyranny of disease over men; 
still another was that of a corpse which impressed 
him with the vanity of all life; finally he met a 



LIGHT OF BUDDHA 387 

mendicant monk, a homeless ascetic who had for- 
saken home and friends. This monk declared that 
he sought deliverance for himself and the salvation 
of all creatures. Gautama at once declared that this 
last life of renunciation was the life for him. Where- 
upon he forsakes wife and child and friends and 
flees to a distant part of the country. He endures 
many hardships, inflicts upon himself many forms 
of self-denial, endures temptation in various forms, 
meditates long, and finally the light of true knowl- 
edge breaks upon his mind. Henceforth he is "the 
Enlightened" one and the giver of light to others. 5 

383. What was this light? It is in its essentials 
very simply stated. It is a knowledge of the follow- 
ing truths: All life is misery. Of this misery there 
are two causes, lust or desire and ignorance. Not 
only is all life misery; every life as we see it is also 
one link in a chain of successive existences. Every 
man has had previous states of existence. The cause 
of the present pain and sorrow is the acts committed 
in former periods. The present life is the resultant 
of past lives under other conditions. Man is thus 
held in an iron chain of cause and effect. The 
Buddhist thus had a simple explanation of the un- 
equal distribution of good and evil. The sufferings 
of a man now are the exact expression of the sins 
of previous states of existence. 

How can man's state of misery be cured? As 
there are two causes, desire and ignorance, so there 
are two cures, the suppression of desire and knowl- 



388 CHRIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

edge. All desire is to be extinguished, but above 
all the desire for continuity of existence. This de- 
sire is fatal to the hope of deliverance in the Bud- 
dhistic gospel. In his famous fire-sermon Gautama ex- 
pounds this doctrine vividly : "Everything, monks, 
is burning; sounds are burning; the nose is burning, 
odors are burning; the tongue is burning, tastes are 
burning; the body is burning, objects of sense are 
burning; the mind is burning; thoughts are burn- 
ing. All are burning with the fire of passions and 
lusts." Then follows an exhortation to the disciple 
to free himself from desires and from passions. 6 

384. The other cure for the misery of existence is 
knowledge, but the knowledge required is the knowl- 
edge simply of the four truths of Buddhism, as fol- 
lows: 1. All existence — that is, existence in any 
form, whether on earth or in heavenly spheres — 
necessarily involves pain and suffering. 2. All suf- 
fering is caused by lust or craving or desire. 3. Ces- 
sation of suffering is simultaneous with extinction 
of lust, craving and desire. 4. Extinction of lust, 
craving and desire and cessation of suffering are 
accomplished by perseverance in the noble eight- 
fold path. The eight-fold path is right belief, that is, 
belief in Buddha and his doctrine; right resolve, 
that is, abandoning one's wife and family as the 
best method of extinguishing desire; right speech, 
or the recitation of the Buddha's doctrine; right 
work, that is, the work of a monk; right livelihood, 
or living by alms; right exercise, or the suppression 



SPECULATIVE DOCTBINES 389 

of self; right mindfulness, or keeping in mind the 
impermanence and impurities of the body; right 
mental concentration, or concentration in trancelike 
quietude. 7 

385. Two speculative doctrines lie at the basis 
of Buddha's teaching. The first is the belief in 
metempsychosis or transmigration of souls, and the 
second is its twin doctrine of Karma as taught by 
the Buddha. The idea of transmigration of souls 
was borrowed. Its origin is not known. Gautama 
adapted it to his system. Indeed, in a real sense it 
is the core of his doctrine. A man may exist suc- 
cessively as reptile, bird, beast, man. He may rise 
to the many Buddhist heavens or fall to the many 
hells, spending countless ages in expiation of past 
deeds. These are transient forms of being, how- 
ever; stations, so to speak, along the road to Nir- 
vana. Nirvana is the extinction of desire and the 
end of the experiences of rebirth. It is the ultimate 
goal of the Buddhist struggle. 

386. Does Nirvana, according to Buddhism, imply 
extinction of being or simply extinction of desire? 
To answer this question we must first consider the 
Buddhist theory of Karma. This word answers 
roughly to our idea of penalty or the principle of 
retribution. A man's present state of existence is 
due to his past. The man of to-day is not exactly 
the individual of a past generation whom he suc- 
ceeds, yet he is the Karmic result of that individual's 
past existence. The one was like a candle which 



390 CHRIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

lighted another candle and then went out. There is 
a line of causation and continuity but not identity 
of personality. The flame of desire burns, so to 
speak, across the dry stubble of existence, not the 
same in shape or magnitude, but as one continuous 
force. Karma is the continuity of the flame to the 
end and Nirvana is its final extinction. 

Thus it appears that Buddhism scarcely leaves 
room for the entity which we call soul. The soul is 
conceived of materialistically. Hence, it would seem 
to be the logic of the doctrine of Karma that the 
identity of the soul perishes utterly, that Nirvana 
is not merely extinction of desire but of being. 

Professor Rhys Davids, one of the highest author- 
ities on Buddhism, holds that Gautama Buddha 
neither asserted nor denied the continued existence 
of the soul after Nirvana. 8 The evidence strongly 
confirms this view. Buddha was intensely practical 
in his aims. His peculiar genius and method led 
him to eschew speculations about the past or future. 
He evaded all such questions, though he accepted 
the doctrine of transmigration. 9 This was a mis- 
take. The practical man overreached himself. It 
would have aided his teaching immensely if he had 
asserted something positive and definite as to the 
future. Agnosticism is not a good working theory 
of life. Later Buddhism did not hesitate to make 
assertions on the subject of the future. It took vari- 
ous forms. Buddhism scarcely exists to-day in the 
pure original. 



ELEVATED ETHICS 391 

387. The ethics of Buddha were in some aspects 
very elevated. He proclaimed universal love. He 
recognized the distinction between inward and out- 
ward morality. His commands for all were: Kill 
not any living thing ; steal not ; commit not adultery ; 
lie not ; drink not strong drink. Some of the virtues 
he commended were: Generosity, moral conduct, 
patience or tolerance, fortitude, suppression of de- 
sire, transcendental wisdom, truth, resolution, good 
will, indifference or imperturbability, or apathy. 

388. Like all great religions Buddhism has some 
very attractive qualities. Its victory over caste and 
the existing priestly religions was a mark of its 
power. It opened the door of such hope as it offered 
not merely to a few but to all. The "enlightenment' ' 
which it enjoined was open to the lowest as well as 
the highest. It erected no impassable religious bar- 
rier before the common man. Then, too, it an- 
nounced a great truth in the assertion that man's 
destiny is connected intimately with moral character. 
Doubtless it was greatly successful in softening the 
manners and morals of many peoples to whom it 
went, and in a measure it subdued fierce tribes to a 
quieter and more wholesome life. 

389. When we compare Buddhism with Chris- 
tianity, however, its insufficiency at once appears. 
We may begin with the supreme need of any religion, 
its doctrine of God. Original Buddhism has no doc- 
trine of God. Here also Gautama was an agnostic, 
and practically his system was atheistic. The belief 



392 CHEIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

in God was not a working theory even in Lis teach- 
ing. Man could hope for no help from without. 
Self-reliance was the only possible road to deliver- 
ance. Redemption in the Christian sense was, of 
course, wholly incompatible with Buddhism. Place 
the doctrine of God as Father taught by Jesus over 
against the Buddhist negation; place the Christian 
idea of forgiveness and a fresh start over against 
the Buddhist Karma and transmigration through 
countless ages; consider the Christian hope of indi- 
vidual immortality, resurrection and fullness of life, 
as against the Buddhist Nirvana and extinction of 
being, and you have a very few of the sharp anti- 
thesis of the two faiths. 

390. Buddhism is not strictly speaking a religion 
at all but a philosophic and moral system. A re- 
ligion without some kind of a god is no religion. 
Strictly speaking we may also add Buddhism is 
scarcely a system of morality. It does emphasize 
man's responsibility for his own acts, yet it binds 
him in the iron chain of metempsychosis. It knows 
nothing of sin in the sense of guilt growing out of 
violation of divine law. Its ethical precepts are all 
at bottom self-regarding. Its patience is but a 
lofty stoicism; its love is prompted by the motive to 
extinguish desire in self. Love is a means to an end 
rather than an end in itself. Professor Rhys Davids 
finds in it an altruism like that of the man who de- 
sires only to survive in the good he has done and the 
future benefits his influence may impart to others. 



BUDDHISM NOT A RELIGION 393 

Thus the Buddhist by attaining Nirvana reduces the 
sum total of misery in the world and so far brings 
relief to struggling humanity and thus realizes for 
himself the aspiration of George Eliot's well-known 
lines : 

"0 may I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead who live again 
In minds made better by their presence; live 
In pulses stirred to generosity, 
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 
For miserable aims that end in self, 
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, 
And with their mild persistence urge man's search 
To vaster issues . 

This is life to come." 

391. Professor Marcus Dods, who cites the 
above lines from George Eliot, expresses the 
opinion that Professor Rhys Davids' theory is 
due more to his own elevated moral senti- 
ment than to Buddhist principles. 10 Be this 
as it may, it is certain that Buddhist altru- 
ism is primarily engrossed in ridding one's self of 
desire. It is a scheme for "the perfecting of one's 
self by accumulating merit with the ultimate view 
of annihilating all consciousness of self — a system 
which teaches the greatest respect for the life of 
others, with the ultimate view of extinguishing one's 
own." "The self to be got rid of in Buddhism is 



394 CHKIST, MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA 

not the selfishness condemned by Christianity but 
rather the self of individuality — the self of individual 
life and personal identity." 11 The sole aim of the 
Buddhist is suicide; his one problem is how to end 
his own existence. The Buddhist heaven, annihila- 
tion, is one form in which men in Christian lands 
hold the doctrine of hell. This is an index to the 
essential difference between the two beliefs. Pes- 
simism, despair, disintegration and death are the 
sole issue of the Buddhist struggle for character. 
Hope, joy, fullness of life, likeness to God, these 
inspire the Christian struggle. 

392. Buddhism is, indeed, a dark background 
against which the glories of Christianity shine with 
splendour. Christianity contains everything good in 
Buddhism, and far more. The moral ideals and 
standards which men employ in estimating the worth 
of Buddhism are borrowed from Christianity. Christ 
alone has made these measures of value current in 
the world. It is not strange that we find some 
broken fragments of the ideal and perfect religion in 
other forms of belief. Christianity, the religion of 
the divine initiative and divine revelation, and es- 
pecially of the divine redemption from sin, with its 
complete equipment for all man's spiritual wants, is 
immeasurably in advance of the remarkable teach- 
ings of the gentle and winning Gautama. Hard and 
trying must be the conditions of life in a country 
where a gospel of despair finds so many adherents. 
One longs, as one reads the tragic story of the Indian 



A DARK BACKGROUND 395 

quest for spiritual peace and rest to carry to those 
lands of eastern Asia where Buddhism has sway, the 
evangel of Christian hope and power, the message of 
him who said, "He that hateth his life in this 
world" not "shall find Nirvana," but "shall keep it 
unto life eternal," and who also said, "Blessed are 
the pure in heart for they shall see God." 



CHAPTER XXV. 

CHRISTIANITY THE TOTAL ANSWER TO MAN'S RE- 
LIGIOUS NEED. 

393. Those who care most for the religious wel- 
fare of mankind must rejoice that in recent years, 
especially since the publication of Mr. Kidd's Social 
Evolution, writers of all schools are disposed to con- 
cede religion its place in human progress. Man is 
inherently and essentially religious in the sense that 
some kind of worship is practically universal. This 
is no longer denied. As a consequence the young 
science of Comparative Religion has acquired a fresh 
hold upon the interest of thoughtful men. But this 
renewed activity in comparative religion has exhibited 
one singular and suggestive phase or tendency which, 
for the most part, has passed unnoticed. The tend- 
ency is that which applies a double method of valu- 
ation in estimating the various religions. It is quite 
common for men of a certain bias against Christian- 
ity to reduce its contents to the lowest possible mini- 
mum, and to compare this minimum with the high- 
est possible maximum of moral and spiritual content 
in Buddhism or other ethnic religions. 

394. This passion for reducing the Christian re- 
ligion to a minimum, or for rinding its "essence" in 



THE ESSENCE OF CHEISTIANITY 397 

its lowest possible terms, is the result in part of the 
supposed apologetic necessities of the hour. We must 
believe as little as possible of the Christian system 
in order to defend it against current science. This 
science, in some of its votaries, is impatient of all 
truth save that to be derived from the phenomena 
of the physical universe. But it should be noted that 
to accommodate Christianity to the demands of a 
fragmentary science is fatal to Christianity. Such a 
proceeding is, to borrow an expressive phrase, "to 
empty out the baby with the water of the bath." If 
Christianity be indefensible, then let us face the fact; 
but let us not violate the principles of true science 
by blinding ourselves to a part, and that the most 
essential part, of the facts of the greatest moral and 
spirtual phenomenon of history. By all means strip 
away excrescenses, reduce Christianity to its original 
and essential elements, but leave it as thus purified 
in its integrity. 

395. The final and practical test of any religion is 
this : Does it provide for all man's religious needs ? 
No religion which claims to be final and absolute 
can hold its position if it fails to make good this 
claim. As an answer to man's total moral and re- 
ligious need no other faith can for a moment com- 
pare with the Christian. We must come back to this 
method of appraising the spiritual value of all re- 
ligions. We must look at them as wholes over against 
the total requirement in the life of man for which 
they claim to make adequate provision. It is pro- 



398 CHRISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

posed in this closing chapter to consider this ques- 
tion in regard to Christianity. 

396. Before taking up the main point, however, 
there is one matter which should be noticed briefly. 
Are we warranted in making a distinction between 
the absolutely and the relatively best in comparing 
religions? Is Christianity, while ideally and theo- 
retically the highest, also practically best for all peo- 
ples at all stages of development? Is not Moham- 
medanism, for example, better for the tribes of Arabia 
and other oriental peoples than Christianity? This 
claim is sometimes made on the assumption that a 
process of development is necessary leading up to 
Christianity, corresponding to that in Judaism. A 
part of this assumption is a doctrine of "the fullness 
of times," which forbids the supposition that the re- 
ligion of Chrst is adapted to all men equally at all 
stages of moral and spiritual development. National 
and tribal groups of men must ripen, so to speak, as 
the Jews did, by long periods of struggle in order to 
become susceptible to the influence of the Gospel of 
Christ. 

397. In view of this position several things may 
be said. The first is that it is based upon a false 
conception of Christianity as to its method of propa- 
gation. The Christian religion goes primarily to 
individuals, not to nations, and it advances not by 
the sword but by persuasion. The real question, then, 
would not be whether this or that race or tribe as 
such is ready for Christianity, but whether in them 



CHRISTIANITY ABSOLUTELY BEST 399 

are to be found individuals through whom the leaven 
of the Gospel may be introduced. It is thus that 
the Christian faith is universally adapted to men. 
It contemplates reaching the many through the se- 
lected few. There is no record of its complete fail- 
ure in the pursuit of this, its proper method. Chris- 
tianity is not an opportunist religion as are Moham- 
medanism and Buddhism. It does not derive its 
chief strength from some local or temporary situ- 
ation on which it builds, or from some current abuse 
against which it is a reaction and protest. It fits into 
all conditions, but acts through universal laws. 

It may be said further that the principle of the 
"fullness of times," in the New Testament teaching, 
seems to have had a far wider application than to 
the development of Israel. The fullness of times 
meant the political solidarity of the race. The world, 
in other words, was a unit, the parts interrelated and 
dependent upon each other. Thus it was possible 
for Christ to take hold of the world as a whole by 
grasping it at a single point. 

The claim that Christianity is not equally adapted 
to all men at all times is to be met in another way. 
Its most pronounced successes have been among the 
lowest and the highest races of mankind. The mis- 
sionary stories of Madagascar and some interior tribes 
of Africa, of the Hawaiian and the South Sea Islands, 
and of some other parts of the world, show its fitness 
as a Gospel for the lowest peoples. Its general prev- 
alence in all the western world is the ever present 



400 CHRISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

proof of its influence among the most advanced races. 
In the light of these facts there is scarcely any 
ground for the assertion that it lacks adaptation to 
the intermediate races. The real explanation here 
is that pride of race and faith renders these peoples 
at the outset less hospitable to new truth. A little 
time for missionaries to master the problem of the 
wise method of setting forth the saving truths most 
effectively will silence the objection. Indeed, it is 
not too much to assert, as it has been asserted by 
others, that within the past hundred years Christian- 
ity has shown itself to be a universal religion. 1 

398. But the sufficient and conclusive proof that 
Christianity is best for all men is to show that it is a 
religion for man as man. Its principles are as uni- 
versal as the race. They omit nothing essential to 
man's spirtual welfare; they reach to the lowest of 
mankind and raise men to the highest possible moral 
and spirtual elevation. To make good these state- 
ments we must now attempt a brief general survey 
of its principles. 

399. First and foremost in importance is its doc- 
trine of God. Men will have an object of worship. 
Comte proposed the worship of humanity; Strauss 
suggested the universe as the proper object of our 
reverence. But these proposals did not and do not 
appeal to men's minds or hearts. The Christian God 
is the most suitable object of universal worship. 

This is true in part because the God of Christian- 
ity is personal. The universal tendency of worship- 



DOCTRINE OF GOD 401 

pers is to personalize the object of faith. Polytheism 
shows this clearly. Brahmamsm and modern pan- 
theism suppose an abstract impersonal principle into 
which the soul will in due time be reabsorbed. But 
higher speculative minds alone can rest content in 
this view. The masses lapse promptly into polythe- 
ism. Moreover, pantheism leaves men passive. The 
need is for a personal supreme will if men are to be 
made moral. The Buddhist denial of God also ends 
in polytheism. The history of religions is conclusive 
on this point: an impersonal object of worship does 
not command the reverence of the masses of men. 

Deism teaches that God is a person, but exalts 
him above the world and man. This impassable gulf 
between God and man is intolerable to a living faith. 
Hence, deistic religons do not flourish and spread. 
Judaism did not. Modern Unitarianism has not yet 
proved its capacity as a missionary religion. All its 
history is against it on this point. Mohammedanism 
is deistic, but has never been widely propagated by 
spiritual means. 

Christianity, on the other hand, teaches a personal 
God, who became incarnate in Jesus Christ. Incar- 
nation is the characteristic Christian idea, not, in- 
deed, as an idea merely, but also as a historic fact. 
This fact marks the Christian as a revealed religion, 
because the idea of incarnation was not only for- 
eign to but entirely unbearable to the Jews among 
whom it arose. Comparative religion shows that this 
was true of the other Semitic peoples also. 



402 CHRISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

400. Now this incarnation of God in Christ shows 
that God is one, that there is something human in 
God and that there is something divine in man. In 
Christ, moreover, it appears that God is personal 
and that he is moral. The two qualities which co- 
exist in him in infinite perfection are love and 
righteousness. Nature nowhere reveals character in 
God in any adequate degree. For the first time men 
discovered in Christ that God is love and that holi- 
ness is of his very essence. They discovered, more- 
over, that he is no passive spectator of the universe 
but profoundly concerned in the welfare of man. He 
appears now as a seeking God. The lost coin, the 
lost sheep, the lost son in the parables, clearly show 
that God feels impoverished when men are lost, that 
he will endure sacrifice at infinite cost in order to 
recover them, and that he awaits the return of the 
prodigal with a Father's welcome. Moreover, this 
gracious and radiant picture of God became forever 
fixed in human form. We beheld the light of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Thus in 
Jesus Christ all man's problems about God find solu- 
tion. The cold and abstract principle of pantheism 
warms into a Being with a heart of infinite tender- 
ness; the empty eye socket of the atheistic negation 
is filled with the glances of the Father's eye; the 
far-away Being of deism draws near and we hear him 
speak; the many gods of the polytheist are merged 
into one and this one is seen to possess all power and 
all holiness and all other attributes of perfection. 



HIGHEST CONCEPTION OF GOD 403 

For the first time in the religous history of man the 
conception of God becomes definite, vivid, winning 
and workable. 

401. Is it possible to improve upon the concep- 
tion of God as revealed in Christ? Certainly at 
present no one can suggest any defect or lack therein. 
A man disposed to cavil might deny the finality of 
man's present moral and spiritual ideal and assert 
that it may be possible for the race to outgrow it. 
But the assertion carries little force. There are, 
indeed, numerous variations from the Christian con- 
ception of God in current thought. Some of these 
fall below and some attempt to rise above the God 
of Christ. But these fail to appeal to the generality 
of serious-minded men. The infra-personal and 
infra-moral God becomes a merely physical force 
without power over the higher nature of man. The 
super-personal and super-moral God is vague and 
abstract and so emptied of definiteness of content as 
to avail nothing for practical purposes. Hence, we 
conclude that whether men admit the force of the 
evidence for Christ and God or not there is little 
likelihood that they will ever be able to point out any 
serious defect in the revelation of God which Christ 
has left us. 

402. It is to be noted next that the Christian 
view of man is as high as it is possible to conceive. 
We need not dwell upon this. The point has already 
been elaborated in the twenty-second chapter. Man 
is made in God's image. He is of infinite worth to 



404 CHRISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

God by virtue simply of his humanity. His destiny 
is to an immortality of conscious existence. His 
chief end is self-realization through conformity to 
the will of God as exhibited in and taught by Jesus 
Christ. Thus shall he best glorify God and enjoy 
him forever. "Whom he foreknew them he also fore- 
ordained to be conformed to the image of his son." 
Sin is not merely an infirmity, or a mistake, or a 
"fall upward;" it is rebellion against the personal 
God, the introduction of anarchy into the moral 
realm and fraught with possibilities of eternal loss 
to man. 

403. Now man's religious needs grow out of his 
essential nature as a free spiritual personality, made 
in the image of God, and brought under the do- 
minion of sin. For one thing he needs a revelation 
which is clear and explicit, as to who and what God 
is. This, as we have already seen, Christ has abun- 
dantly supplied. Next he needs reconciliation and 
redemption. There must come into his life a power 
from without if he is ever to rise above himself. 
This power may come gradually and unfold itself 
from within man's consciousness, but it must never- 
theless come as from the outside, must be an addi- 
tion to the sum total of man's spiritual resources in 
his natural state. This is redemption. Pardon and 
reconciliation with God enter into this redemption 
as an integral part. The sense of guilt must be re- 
moved, the bondage of sin must be broken. Along 
with these is bound up a life of fellowship with God. 



MAN'S SOCIAL NEEDS 403 

This is the chief end of religion, to. unite man with 
God. Some think the etymology of the word implies 
this "binding to God." Whatever is true of the word 
the fact cannot be gainsaid. 

404. But man's religious need is greater than 
we have yet indicated. He must somehow be enabled 
to pass out of himself. He is a social being. His 
own highest possibilties are to be realized only 
through sacrifice. Hence he needs some moral and 
spiritual motive power which shall be able to hold 
him to the pursuit of a divine ideal. Thus he must 
become the servant of his fellows, even to the laying 
down of his life for them if need requires. Under 
the law of service a new and spiritual kingdom arises 
out of which must be progressively cast everything 
that is unclean, unjust, unlovely, and everything 
which loveth and maketh a lie. At length, in a 
social heaven redeemed spirits transfigured into the 
image of God are to dwell in this presence forever- 
more. 

Now to meet these spiritual needs of man, Chris- 
tianity with its doctrine and fact of incarnation ex- 
hibits God as himself missionary and historic. Mov- 
ing on the plane of man's being audibly, visibly, 
stoopingly, yet omnipotently he comes to redeem. 
The practical bearings of the doctrine of the Trinity 
are seen here. It exhibits a God capable of self- 
sacrifice and equal to the task of redemption. In- 
carnation so far from appearing as a mark of limi- 
tation and imperfection is thus seen to be rather 



406 CHEISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

an evidence of enlarged activity and of perfection in 
God. If love demanded redemption and redemption 
required incarnation it were a token of impotence in 
God if incarnation were beyond his reach. 

405. Priesthood, sacrifice and mediation are in- 
wrought as idea and institution in practically all 
religions. Judaism provided for this fundamental 
religious need in its Levitical system. The epistle 
to the Hebrews interprets them all in terms of Christ. 
He is the ideal Priest, Sacrifice and Mediator. 
"Once for all' by the offering of himself he put an 
end to the necessity for the outward ritual. Hence- 
forth all men may become priests unto God through 
his perfect sacrifice. Thus man's sense of sin and 
guilt are wiped out of his consciousness and as son 
and heir he "comes boldly to a throne of grace to 
obtain mercy and find help in time of need." Thus 
comes restored fellowship and union between God 
and man. 

406. But observe how this union is brought to 
pass. It is not by the quenching of individuality 
as in the pantheistic reabsorption. It is not by ex- 
tinction of being as in the Buddhist Nirvana. It is 
rather by a moral union, a coinciding of holy wills, 
in which the personal God and the personal man 
remain forever distinct, each capable of enjoying the 
other — man the object of the eternal self -communi- 
cation of God and God the object of the eternal 
service and praise of man. 

407. The Christian moral ideal is the highest 



CHRISTIAN MORAL IDEAL HIGHEST 407 

ever conceived. Men have repeatedly declared that 
the Sermon on the Mount is impracticable. The 
explanation is to be found in the assumption under- 
lying the Sermon on the Mount. That assumption 
is Regeneration. God does not command men to 
make bricks without straw. Augustine's beautiful 
prayer is the key to the difficulty. "Give what thou 
commandest and command what thou wilt." God 
lifts men to the plane of the Sermon on the Mount 
by the impartation of a spiritual nature. When this 
is done a new and holy character has begun; indeed, 
new systems and civilizations arise out of this vital 
germ. The indwelling Spirit abiding to the end 
in the Christian's heart ministers of the things of 
Christ, carries on the work of sanctification by a 
process of spiritual evolution, utilizing every ele- 
ment of the earthly environment as a means of 
growth, and at length by the resurrection of the body 
completes the work. 

"But," it may be asked, "is this lofty religion one 
which can be appropriated by men universally?" 
Does it appeal, as we have declared, to man as man 
regardless of race, climate or condition? Does it 
reach the ignorant and learned? May its principles 
be grasped by all men everywhere? The answer is 
an emphatic affirmative, which we now propose to 
show. 

408. Two or three general statements may be 
made. For one thing Christianity has universalized 
worship. Times and places are no longer required. 



408 CHEISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

Anywhere and everywhere men may call upon God, 
who is a spirit, and look for answer to their call. 
Moreover, the principles of Christianity are identified 
with no particular form of civilization. They work 
as leaven in any social order, and slowly transform 
it into higher forms. But the universalism of Chris- 
tianity is seen especially in the nature of the condi- 
tions laid down for its acceptance. 

409. These conditions are two, repentance and 
faith. These two in turn are parts of one radical 
change in the soul's attitude. Look now at the sim- 
plicity of these terms. They are elementary to the 
last degree. They are common to the experience 
of the earliest childhood, and, after their kind, they 
are common to all races and peoples. They are as 
ultimate and essentially human as anything which 
can be named. The child learns faith in trusting 
the mother in earliest years, and whatever the moral 
standard of delinquency, repentance in some form 
is common to all mankind. Brahmanism is passive 
and properly understood means submission; Bud- 
dhism essentially means submission; Islam literally 
means submission. Now submission becomes repent- 
ance and faith the moment the object of devotion 
ceases to be an abstract principle, or law, or a mere 
almighty power, and becomes a moral person. 

These moral terms of admission to the kingdom 
of Christ are thus seen to be ultimate moral princi- 
ples in their simplicity. Just as every form of 
deductive reasoning is identical in principle with 



ALL MORAL POSSIBILITIES 409 

every other, and just as the lowest types of men, and 
in the opinion of some, even animals, reason in some 
rudimentary way on these same elementary princi- 
ples, so we have in faith and repentance the lowest 
moral universals. Hence, Christianity appeals to 
man as man. All distinctions are necessarily wiped 
out, and a common need growing out of sin reduces 
all to a common level and places the conditions with- 
in reach of all. 

410. It should be noted also that repentance and 
faith, while they are at the last degree of simplicity 
in the moral scale, and thus within the reach of the 
lowest intelligence, contain the promise of the high- 
est results in the end. This is because they relate 
man to God dynamically. They do not impose moral 
burdens merely. They open his nature to the inflow of 
the divine life and energy. They remove obstructions 
and permit Christ to become for man "wisdom, right- 
eousness, sanctification and redemption." A new 
sense of power at once arises within and all moral 
attainment seems suddenly to become possible. In 
these conditions are the prophecy of all wisdom and 
knowledge, all beauty of holiness, all loveliness and 
winsomeness of individuality, all heights of moral 
attainment in every form and variety. 

411. The religion of Jesus appeals to the high- 
est and noblest instincts in man. The love of being, 
of attainment and victory are idealized in it as no- 
where else. As long as men seek the goals of en- 
deavor which awaken these impulses they will be 



410 CHRISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

found to possess affinity for Christ. As a recent 
writer has said: "The supremacy of Jesus among 
the religious teachers of mankind rests upon the ver- 
dict of life. One can predict the universal and final 
rejection of Christianity only as one shall forecast 
the universal and final denial of the will to live. 
Universal and permanent pessimism alone can suc- 
ceed in relegating the Gospel of Christ to an inferior 
position. Because the desire for life is deep and 
ineradicable, because it prevails more and more 
wherever existence is normal, Christianity is bound 
to become the religion of the world. Victorious and 
passionately aspiring life can never rest long under 
the shadow of a pessimistic Gospel. The leader for 
an achieving humanity is he who came to give the 
more abundant life." 3 

412. It is not for Christians to express contempt 
or to rail at other religions. The contemplation of 
these is an occasion for the awakening in us of deep 
compassion and pity. They are human attempts, 
earnest and lofty some of them, to find God. They 
all alike exhibit the weakness and inadequacy of 
man's natural powers as blinded by sin. In Chris- 
tianity God comes seeking man, and we who have 
known the love and light and power of Christ will 
be guilty beyond the power of language to express if 
we fail to exert ourselves to make known Christ's 
Gospel to the ends of the earth. Christ stands at 
the end of every winding path of human specula- 
tion in the search for God. His is the answer to 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHER RELIGIONS 411 

all the questionings of the heart of man about eternal 
things. As Dr. Fairbairn says: "Christ is more a 
response to a nature dissatisfied with its own discov- 
eries and knowledge than an absolute miracle which 
violates all that nature's laws." 4 

The religion of the Buddha is the saddest wail that 
ever issued from the human heart under the burdens 
and sorrows of existence. That wail should be to us 
as a call to active missionary endeavor. The guaran- 
tee that men will hear us and not Buddha is found 
in the constitution of the human spirit. The fol- 
lowing words of Dr. George A. Gordon are none too 
strong: "\Ve hear Buddha say that existence is de- 
sire, that desire is egoism, that egoism is misery, and 
that the highest hope of man is the hope of extinc- 
tion. The noble ethical discipline that becomes the 
only path to the peace of nothingness must be esti- 
mated in the presence of the goal to which it is 
adjusted, in the presence also of the universe which 
makes this goal the highest human beatitude. We 
hear Buddha speak and the whole of our world is 
against him. He is exalted, he is gracious, he is full 
of indescribable pity, he is benign; but he is from 
our point of view the victim of an immeasurable and 
a hideous mistake. We hear Jesus say that existence 
is desire, that desire is ordained of God to become 
love, that love is pure and glorious joy, and that his 
mission is to fill humanity with love that it may be 
filled with worth and joy. Here our world is with 
Jesus. All believers in life, all reformers of life, all 



412 CHRISTIANITY MAN'S TOTAL NEED 

idealists for life, and the whole soul of our civiliza- 
tion side with Jesus. And once more it must be said 
that for the world that wants to live, to live worthily, 
royally and endlessly there is no rival leadership to 
Jesus Christ/' 5 



WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT, BY EXPO- 
NENT FIGURES. 

CHAPTER I. 

1. Waee: Christianity and Agnosticism, preface, p. xxi. 

2. Froude: Short Studies in Great Subjects, first series, 

p. 448. 

3. Huxley: Lay Sermons, p. 340. 

4. J. S. Mill: Essays on Religion, pp. 69-122. 

5. T. H. Huxley: Lay Sermons, p. 322. 

6. Ibid., p. 322. 

7. T. H. Huxley: Evolution and Ethics, p. 121. 

8. T. H. Huxley: Method and Results, p. 61. 

9. T. H. Huxley: Science and Christian Tradition, p. 243. 

CHAPTER II. 

1. Spinoza: Ethics I., Def. 3. Hoc est id, cujus con- 

ceptus non indiget conceptu alterius rex, a quo for- 
mari debeat. 

2. A. Weber: History of Philosophy, p. 328. 

3. Spinoza : Ethics I. Prop. 7 ; I. Def. 6 ; Ethics II. Prop. 

1 and 2. 

4. H. Lotze: Microcosmus, pp. 659-688, cf. with p. 241f. 

5. Mrs. E. B. Browning: Cowper's Grave. 

CHAPTER III. 

1. Compare Josiah Royce: Spirit of Modern Philosophy, 

pp. 371-372. 

2. Vogt: Physiologische Brief e fiir Gebildete aller Stande, 

p. 206; Kohlerglaube und Wissenschaft, p. 32. 

3. Wm. James: Immortality, pp. 12-22. 

4. John Fiske: Cosmic Philosophy, p. 442, Vol. II. 

413 



414 WORKS REFERRED TO 

5. Wm, James: The Will to Believe, pp. 111-144, essay on 

Reflex Action and Theism. 

6. A. B. Bruce: Apologetics, p. 114. 

7. J. R. Illingworth: Divine Immanence, p. 57. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1. R. Flint: Agnosticism, pp. 297-8. 

2. R. Flint: Agnosticism, p. 286. 

CHAPTER V. 

1. H. Spencer: First Principles, p. 305. 

2. H. Spencer: First Principles, p. 396. 

3. H. Spencer: First Principles, pp. 347 and 359. 

4. H. Spencer: First Principles, pp. 280 and 285. 

6. Ibid., p. 186. 

7. Fiske: Through Nature to God, pp. 189-190. 

8. John Fiske: Cosmic Philosophy, p. 472, Vol. II. 

9. Romanes: Thoughts on Religion, p. 75. 
10. Fowler: Inductive Logic, p. 99ff. 

CHAPTER VI. 

1. Wm. James: Varieties of Religwus Experience, p. 525. 

2. Wm. James: The Will to Believe, Ch. 1. 

3. J. S. Mill: Essays on Religion, p. 153. 

CHAPTER VII. 

1. A. B. Bruce: The Kingdom of God, p. 41. 

2. Seeley: Ecce Homo, pp. 44 and 49. 

3. Ibid. : Ecce Homo, p. 48. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1. Robertson Nicoll: The Church's One Foundation, pp. 

95-96. 

2. Fairbairn: Religion in History and Modern Life, pp. 

152-3. 



WOEKS REFERRED TO 415 

CHAPTER IX. 

1. Renan: Etude d' Hist. Rel., pp. 175, 213, 214. 

2. G. J. Romanes: Thoughts on Religion, p. 169. 

3. J. S. Mill: Essays on Religion, pp. 253-254. 

4. Strauss: Life of Jesus. People's ed. 1864, p. 625. 

5. Goethe: Conversations with Eckerman, iii. 371. 

6. Matthew Arnold: quoted in Stewart's Handbook of 

Christian Evidences, p. 139. 

7. Lecky: History of European Morals, Vol. II., p. 88. 

8. Henry Rogers: Superhuman Origin of the Bible, p. 31. 

9. Row: A Manual of Christian Evidences, p. 83. 

10. Ballard: Miracles of Unbelief, p. 276. 

11. Francis Newman: See Stewart, Handbook of Chris- 

tian Evidences, p. 64. 

CHAPTER X. 

1. Hasting 's Bible Dictionary, Vol. III., p. 718. 

2. Wm. Sanday: Commentary on Romans, p. 376. 

3. Wm. Sanday: Commentary on Romans, p. 381. 

4. Wm. Sanday: Commentary on Romans, p. 232. 

5. Hasting 's Bible Dictionary, Vol. III., p. 717. 

6. H. R. Reynolds, in Hasting 's Bible Dictionary, Vol. 

II., p. 714, Art. John, Gospel of. 

CHAPTER XI. 

1. Stewart: Handbook of Christian Evidences, pp. 75-76. 

2. G. P. Fisher: Grounds of Theistic and Christian Be- 

lief. 

3. G. J. Romanes: Thoughts on Religion, p. 168. 

4. G. J. Romanes: Thoughts on Religion, p. 167. 

5. Wm. James: The Will to Believe, pp. 86-87. 

6. Bruce: Providential Order, p. 301. 

7. A. Sabatier: Religions of Authority and the Religion 

of the Spirit. 

8. A. Harnack: The Essence of Christianity. 



416 .WORKS REFERRED TO 



CHAPTER XII. 



1. Robert Flint : Agnosticism, p. 162ff . 

2. Romanes : Thoughts on Religion, p. 167. 

3. J. M. Whiton: Miracle and Supernatural Religion, 

4. W. N. Rice: Christian Faith in an Age of Science. 

5. H. Bushnell : Nature and the Supernatural, p. 256. 

6. H. Van Dyke : The Gospel for an Age of Doubt, p. 420. 

7. Charles Gore: The Incarnation of the Son of God, p. 

54. 

8. A. B. Bruce: The Miraculous Element in the Gospels, 

p. 79ff. 

9. Ibid.: The Miraculous Element in the Gospels, p. 90. 

10. Lecky: History of Rationalism f 8 vol. ed., Vol. I., p. 

170. 

11. Seeley: Ecce Homo, p. 51. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

1. John Kennedy: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, p. 

15ff. 

2. John Kennedy: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, p. 95. 

3. A. Maclaren: Sermons Preached at Manchester, 3rd 

series, Sermon, Witnesses of the Resurrection. 

4. Ibid.: p. 375. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1. Irenaeus Against Heresies: iii. 1. 1 translation given 

by Godet Int. to Gospel Collection, p. 6. The transla- 
tion in the Ante Nicene Fathers says Mark was ' ' in- 
terpreter" of Peter. 

2. Hypotyposes of Clement, quoted by Eusebius VI. 14. 

3. Eusebius, H. E. v. 11. 

4. Clement: Stromata, iii. 553. 

5. Westcott: The Canon of the New Testament, pp. 216- 

217. 

6. Tertullian: Against Marcion, Book IV., ch. 2, Ante- 

Nicene Fathers. 



WORKS REFERRED TO 417 

7. Wcstcott: The Canon of the New Testament, 7th ed., 

pp. 352-353. 

8. Fisher: p. 222. H.E. IV. 29. Tatian: Oral ad Grae- 

cos, c. 18 & cc. 4, 5, 13, 19. 

9. Justin Martyr: First Apology, ch. LXVI. 

10. Justin Martyr: First Apology, ch. XXIII; XXXII; 

LXI. 

11. Idghtfoot: Essays on the work entitled Supernatural 

Religion, especially the chapter on the Silence of 
Eusebius. 

12. Fisher: Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief, p. 

255. 

13. Godet: Introduction to Gospel Collection, p. 2. 

14. Godet: Introduction to Gospel Collection, p. 90. 

15. Cf. Fisher: Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief, 

p. 226. 

16. See Fisher: pp. 229, 254; Westcott: The Canon, p. 

XXXVI. 

17. Westcott: The Canon, p. XXXVII. 

CHAPTER XV. 

1. James Orr: Christian View of God and the World, pp. 

277-278. 

2. Charles Gore: The Incarnation of the Son of God, p. 

36. 

3. Seneca: Be Ira ii. 9. 

4. Aristotle: Ethics, book X, Chap. IX. 

5. Ale. ii. 14, condensed and paraphrased, Uhlhorn, p. 70. 

6. Phaedo 85, Jowett i. 434. 

7. Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, pp. 72-73; 

Cf. Be Ira iii., 15. 

8. Henslow: Christ no Product of Evolution, pp. 37-38. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
1. W. James: Varieties of Christian Experience, p. 402. 



'4:18 WORKS REFERRED TO 

2. H. Wace : The Foundations of Faith, pp. 153-155. 

3. St. Hilary's Conversion as related in his work De Trin- 

itate. See Wace pp. 326-332. 

4. Martin Luther, Treatise De Libertate Christiana, See 

Wace, pp. 339ff. 

5. John Bunyan, quoted by James, Varieties of Beligious 

Experience, p. 188. 

6. Adolph Monod. See James, pp. 243-244. 

7. Hudson Taylor Autobiography. See James, p. 246. 

8. S. H. Hadley's Conversion. See James, pp. 201-203. 

See Mr. Hadley's pamphlet Rescue Mission Work 
and Down in Water St. 

9. Sir Algernon Coote's Conversion, Given in C. S. Isaac- 

son's Roads to Christ, p. 62. 

10. A. T. Mahan's Conversion. See Roads to Christ, pp. 

73-74. 

11. H. C. G. Moule's Conversion. See Roads to Christ, p. 

16. 

12. R. A. Torrey's Conversion. Roads to Christ, pp. 29-30. 

13. J. Ewing's Conversion. Roads to Christ, pp. 66-67. 

14. Steve Holcombe's Conversion. Biography of HoU 

combe, by Gross Alexander, p. 46. 

15. Experience of E. L. Gregory. A Scientist's Confession 

of Faith, pp. 4, 15, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

1. Wm. James: Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 516. 

2. G. J. Romanes: Thoughts on Religion, p. 112. 

3. Geo. A. Coe: The Spiritual Life, p. 16. 

4. C. C. Hall: Christian Belief Interpreted by Christian 

Experience, p. 44. 

5. F. H. Foster: Christian Life and Theology, p. 21ff. 

6. Wm. James: Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 508. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
1. Wm. James : Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 491. 



WORKS REFERRED TO 419 

2. F. H. Foster: Christian Life and Theology, p. 140. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

1. Fowler: Inductive Logic, p. 251. 

2. John Fiske: Through Nature to God, pp. 34-35. 

3. Frank: System of Christian Certainty, Vol. I., p. 325; 

Evans' trans, p. 307. 

4. Frank Ballard: Miracles of Unbelief, pp. 224ff. 

5. Watts: Works, Vol. I., p. 22. 

CHAPTER XX. 

1. Compare The Church 's One Foundation, by W. Robert- 

son Nicoll, ch. IX., p. 112. 

2. Granger: Soul of the Christian, pp. 51 and 53 and 11 

and 46. 

3. Wm. James: Varieties of Beligious Experience, p. 515, 

note. 

4. Wm. James : Varieties of Beligious Experience, pp. 513 

and 515. 

5. Wm. James: Will to Believe, p. 3. 

6. G. J. Romanes : Thoughts on Beligion, pp. 146-147. 

7. Granger: Soul of the Christian, p. 21. 

8. A. Harnack: Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Chris- 

tentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten. 

9. Fairbairn: Philosophy of the Christian Beligion, p. 

8ff. 
10. James: Varieties of Beligious Experience, p. 438, foot 
note. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1. H. H. Milman: History of Christianity, Vol. L, p. 436. 

2. Geo. A. Gordon: The Christ of To-day, p. 289. 

3. Fairbairn: Beligion in History and Modem Life, p. 

169. 

4. W. E. Lecky : History of European Morals, Vol. I., pp. 

164-5. 



420 WOSKS REFERRED TO 

5. Uhlhorn: Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, p. 

473 j and Theodoret H. Ecc. iii., 23, and Sozom H. 
Ecc. vi., 2. 

6. S. Mathews: Social Teaching of Jesus. 

7. Quoted by G. Campbell Morgan in Christian Work, 

Oct., 1904, p. 871. 

8. Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Boman Empire, ch. 

XV. 

9. Lecky: History of European Morals, Vol. I., pp. 419 

and 413. 

10. W. James: The Will to Believe, Ch. on Keflex Action 

and Theism, pp. lllff. 

11. Quoted by Win. James from Fitz James Stephen's 

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, in The Will to Be- 
lieve, p. 31. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

1. C. L. Brace: Gesta Christi, p. 73. 

2. C. L. Brace: Gesta Christi, p. 47. 

3. C. L. Brace : Gesta Christi, Ch. V., p. 40, X., and His- 

tory of European Morals. 

4. C. Schmidt: Social Besults of Early Christianity, pp. 

71-72. 

5. Uhlhorn: Christian Charity in the Ancient Church, pp. 

8-9. 

6. Nash: Genesis of the Social Conscience, p. 63ff. 

7. Nash: Genesis of the Social Conscience, p. 134. 

8. Lecky: History of European Morals, vol. ii., pp. 3ff. 

9. Nash: Genesis of the Social Conscience. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

1. Jas. S. Dennis: Foreign Missions after a Century, p. 

247. 

2. Froude: Short Studies on Great Subjects, First 

Series, p. 398. 

3. A. T. Pierson: Proceedings of Ecumenical Mission- 

ary Conference, 1900, Vol. II., p. 328. 



WORKS REFERRED TO 421 

4. Seeley: Ecce Homo, pp. 49-50. 

5. Sohm : Outlines of Church History, p. 192. 

6. A. T. Pierson: Ecumenical Missionary Conference 

Proceedings, 1900, Vol. II., p. 327. 

7. R. Sohm: Outlines of Church History, pp. 5-6. 

8. Encyclopedia of Missions, 2nd ed., p. 84. 

9. Jas. S. Dennis: Christian Missions and Social Prog* 

ress, p. llff. 
10. Encyclopedia of Missions, 2nd ed., Appendix V. 
21. S. L. Gulick: Growth of the Kingdom of God, p. 23. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

1. Marcus Dods : Mohammed, Buddha and Christ, p. 29. 

2. Koran: Chapter XXXIII. 

3. Koran: Chapters LXXVI and LXXVIII. 

4. See Addresses by Mohammed Webb, Vols. I. and II. 

Proceedings of World's Parliament of Religions, 

5. Monier- Williams : Buddhism, pp. 25-35. 

6. Monier- Williams : Buddhism, pp. 46-47, quoted from 

Maha. Vol. I. 21. 

7. Slightly abridged from Monier-Williams, Buddhism, 

pp. 44-45. Rhys Davids gives a somewhat different 
interpretation of the eightfold path. 

8. Rhys Davids: Hibbert Lectures on Indian Buddhism, 

chapter on Karma, and Appendix X. 

9. Hopkins : Religions of India, p. 335. 

10. Dods: Mohammed, Buddha and Christ, pp. 170-172. 

11. Monier-Williams: Buddhism, p. 143. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

1. Compare Marcus Dods' chapter on The Perfect Relig- 

ion in Mohammed, Buddha and Christ. 

2. Geo. A. Gordon : Ultimate Conceptions of Faith, p. 267. 

3. Fairbairn : Philosophy of the Christian Religion, p. 540. 

4. Geo. A. Gordon : Ultimate Conceptions of Faith, p. 271. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

GENERAL WORKS ON CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 

FISHER, G. P. The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Be- 
lief. Revised edition. C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 
1883. 

BRUCE, A. B. Apologetics. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New 
York, 1896. 

WRIGHT, G. F. The Logic of Christian Evidences. War- 
ren F. Draper, Andover, 1900. 

MATHESON, GEO. Can the Old Faith Live with the New. 
Wm. Blackwood and Sons. Edinburgh, 1889. 

NICOLL, W. ROBERTSON. The Church's One Founda- 
tion. A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York, 1901. 

BALLARD, F. The Miracles of Unbelief. T. & T. Clark, 
Edinburgh. 

CHRISTLIEB, T. Modem Doubt and Christian Belief. 
C. Scribner's Sons, New York. 

STEWART, A. Handbook of Christian Evidences. A. D. 
F. Randolph, New York, 1895. 

ROW, C. A. Seasons for Believing in Christianity. Thos. 
Whittaker, New York. 

ROW, C. A. A Manual of Christian Evidences. Theological 
Educator series, edited by W. R. Nicoll. Thos. Whit- 
taker, New York, 1900. 

RICE, W. N. Christian Faith in an Age of Science. A. C. 
Armstrong & Son, New York, 1903. 

PHILLIPS, L. F. M. Cumulative Evidences of Divine Bev- 
elation. Christian Evidence Society. 

ROW, C. A. Christian Evidences in Belation to Modern 
Thought. Norgate. 

138 



424 BIBLIOGEAPHY 

KENNEDY, JOHN. Popular Handbook of Christian Evi» 

deuces. London Sunday School Union. 
FAEEAE, T. Critical History of Free Thought The Mac- 

millan Co. 

CHAPTEE I. 

MODERN CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 

JEVONS, W. S. The Principles of Science. Macmillan 
& Co., New York, 1874. 

JEVONS, W. S. Elementary Lessons in Logic, Deductive 
and Inductive. Macmillan & Co., New York, 1888. 

FOWLEE, THOMAS. Elements of Inductive Logic. Clar- 
endon Press, Oxford, 1883. 

FISHEE, GEO. P. Manual of Christian Evidences. Chas. 
Scribner's Sons, New York, 1888. 

EOBINSON, E. G. Christian Evidences. Silver, Burdett 
& Co., New York, 1895. 

McCOSH, J. The Tests of the Various Kinds of Truth. 
Hunt & Eaton, New York, 1889. 

CHAPTEES II, III, IV, V, VI. 

PANTHEISM, MATERIALISM, AGNOSTICISM, EVOLUTION, 
THEISM. 

The subjects dealt with in chapters II to VI are usually 
treated in the same volume. It has been thought best, 
therefore, to give the bibliography in a single group. In 
some instances the subject made prominent in a particular 
work is indicated. 
MOOEE, AUBEEY. Science and the Faith. Kegan Paul, 

Trench, Trtibner & Co., London, 1898. 
KENNEDY, J. H. Natural Theology and Modem Thought. 

Hodder & Stoughton, London. 
BEATTIE, F. E. Apologetics. 3 vols. The Presbyterian 

committee of Publication, Eichmond, Va. Vol. I. 

Fundamental Apologetics. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 425 

BALFOUR, A. J. The Foundations of Belief. Longmans, 
Green & Co., New York, 1897. 

CAIRD, JOHN. Spinoza. Philosophical Classics series, 
edited by Wm. Knight. J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila- 
delphia. 

CAIRD, JOHN. Introduction to the Philosophy of Relig- 
ion. James Maclehose & Sons, Glasgow, 1901. 
JAMES, WM. Human Immortality. Houghton, Mifflin & 

Co., New York and Boston, 1899. 
ROYCE, J. Beligious Aspect of Philosophy. Houghton, 

Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1897. 
ROYCE, J. The Spirit of Modern Philosophy. Houghton, 

Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1901. 
ILLINGWORTH, J. R. Divine Immanence. The Macmil- 

lan Co., New York, 1898. 
ILLINGWORTH, J. R. Personality, Human and Divine. 

Bampton lectures 1894. Macmillan Co., New York, 

1899. 
WATSON, JOHN. Outline of Philosophy. Jas. Maclehose 

& Sons, Glasgow, 1898. 
FLINT, ROBERT. Agnosticism. Chas. Scribner's Sons, 

New York, 1903. 
WACE, HENRY. Christianity and Agnosticism. Thos. 

Whittaker, New York, 1895. 
FISKE, J. A Century of Science. Houghton, Mifflin & 

Co., Boston, 1899. 
FROUDE, J. A. Short Studies in Great Subjects. First 

Series. C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1895. Essay on 

Spinoza. 
DAWSON, J. W. Modern Ideas of Evolution. Religious 

Tract Society, London, 1900. 
DRUMMOND, HENRY. The Ascent of Man. James Pott 

& Co., New York, 1894. 
GRAY, ASA. Darwiniana. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 

1889. 



426 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

IVERACH, J. Christianity and Evolution. Hodder & 

Stoughton, London, 1894. 
JEVONS, F. B. Evolution. The Maemillan Co., New York, 

1902. 
SEXTON, G. Baseless Fabric of Scientific Scepticism. 

Smart & Allen. 
BOYCE, J. Studies in Good and Evil. D. Appleton & Co., 

New York. 
HOWISON, G. H. Limits of Evolution. The Maemillan 

Co., New York, 1901. 
KOMANES, G. J. Darwin and After Darwin. Open Court 

Publishing Company. 
ROMANES, G. J. Thoughts on Beligion. Edited by Chas. 

Gore. The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, 1895. 
OBR, JAMES. The Christian View of God and the World. 

Chas. Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1897. 
FISKE, JOHN. Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy. 2 vols. 

Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1898. 
WESTCOTT, B. F. The Gospel of Life. Maemillan & 

Co., New York, 1895. 
FLINT, ROBERT. Theism. C. Scribner 's Sons, New 

York, 1898. 
CLARKE, W. N. An Outline of Christian Theology. 

Chas. Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1898. 
JAMES, WM, The Will to Believe and other Essays. 

Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1898. 
FLINT, R. Aspects of Theism. Blackwood. 
FLINT, R. Antitheistic Theories. Blackwood. 
BOYCE, J. P. Abstract of Systematic Theology, revised 

by F. H. Kerfoot. American Baptist Publication So- 
ciety. Philadelphia. 
STRONG, A. H. Systematic Theology. A. C. Armstrong 

& Son, New York. Revised edition. 
HOVEY, A. Studies in Ethics and Beligion. Silver, Bur- 

dett & Co., Boston, 1892. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 427 

BALDWIN, J. M. Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychol- 
ogy. 3 vols. Macmillan & Co., New York, 1902. 

IVERACH, JAS. Theism in the Light of Present Science 
and Philosophy. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1899. 

SMYTH, NEWMAN. Through Science to Faith. Chas. 
Scribner's Sons, New York, 1902. 

DRUMMOND, H. The Ascent of Man. James Pott & Co., 
New York. 

FAIRBAIRN, A. M. The Philosophy of the Christian Re- 
ligion. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1902. 

CAIRD, JOHN. Fundamental Ideas of Christianity. Jas. 
Maclehose & Sons, Glasgow, 1899. 2 vols. 

BOWNE, B. P. Theism. The Deems Lectures for 1902. 
American Book Co., New York. 

BOWNE, B. P. Metaphysics. American Book Co., New 
York. 

LECONTE, J. "Religion and Science. D. Appleton & Co., 
New York, 1898. 

LECONTE, J. Evolution in Relation to Religious Thought. 
Chapman & Hall. 

CALDECOTT, A. The Philosophy of Religion. The Mac- 
millan Co., New York, 1901. 

PALEY, WM. Natural Theology. Lincoln Edmands & Co., 
Boston. 

LOTZE, H. Philosophy of Religion. Macmillan & Co., 
New York, 1892. 

STRONG, A. H. Christ in Creation and Ethical Monism. 
The Roger Williams Press. Philadelphia, 1899. 

JOHNSON, E. H. Outline of Systematic Theology. Amer- 
ican Baptist Publication Society. Philadelphia, 1895. 

WEBER, ALFRED. History of Philosophy. Chas. Scrib- 
ner's Sons, New York, 1897. Translated by Frank 
Thilly. 

WINDELBAND, W. A History of Philosophy. Trans- 
lated by Jas. H. Tufts. The Macmillan Co., New York, 
1901. 



428 BIBLIOGEAPHY 

STIELING, J. H. Darwinianism : Workmen and Work. 

T. & T. Clark, 
SCHMID, EUDOLPH. The Theories of Darwm. Jansen, 

McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1883. Translated by G. A. 

Zimmermann. 
DAWSON, J. W. The Story of the Earth and Man. Har- 
per & Bros., New York, 1898. 
AEGYLL, THE DUKE OF. The Eeign of Law. Jno. B. 

Alden, New York, 1884. 
DEUMMOND, H. Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 

Jas. Pott & Co., New York, 1884. 
STEWAET and TAIT. The Unseen Universe. Macmillan 

& Co., New York, 1894. 
FISKE, J. Destiny of Mm. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., New 

York, 1899. 
FISKE, J. The Idea of God. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 

New York, 1899. 
FISKE, J. Life Everlasting. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., New 

York, 1901. 
JANET, P. Final Causes. T. & T. Clark. 
FISKE, J. Through Nature to God. Houghton, Mifflin & 

Co., Boston, 1899. 
WILKIN, G. F. Control in Evolution. A. C. Armstrong 

& Son, New York, 1903. 

CHAPTEE VII. 

THE SYNOPTIC PICTURE OF JESUS. 

KENNEDY, JOHN. The Self "Revelation of Jesus Christ. 
Wm. Isbister, London, 1887. 

HANNA, WM. The Life of Christ. American Tract So- 
ciety, New York. 

FAEEAE, F. W. The Life of Christ. E. P. Dutton & Co., 
New York, 1887. 

STALKEE, JAMES. The Christology of Jesus. A. C. 
Armstrong & Son., New York, 1899. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 429 

RHEES, RUSH. The Life of Jesus of Nazareth: a study. 

New York, Scribner's, 1900. 
STEVENS, G. B. The Teaching of Jesus. The Macmillan 

Co., New York, 1901. 
EDERSHEIM, A. Life of Jesus Christ. Longmans, Green 

& Co., New York, 1896. 2 vols. 
HASTINGS, JAMES (Editor). Bible Dictionary. Chas. 

Scribner's Sons., New York, 1900. Many very valuable 

articles for all of Part II. of this volume. 
All Standard Lives of Christ. 



CHAPTER IX. 

OPPOSING THEORIES. 

WACE, H. The Gospel and Its Witnesses. Murray. 

CLARKE, W. N. Can I Believe in God the Father? C. 
Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1899. 

FORREST, D. W. The Christ of History and of Experi- 
ence. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1901. 

FAIRBAIRN, A. M. The Place of Christ in Modern Theol- 
ogy. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1894. 

LORIMER, G. C. The Argument for Christianity. Ameri- 
can Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1894. 

SEELEY, PROF. Ecce Homo. Roberts Bros., Boston, 
1870. 

FISHER, G. P. The Four Gospels. Dodd Mead & Co. 
New York, 1899. 

LIDDON, H. P. The Divinity of Our Lord. Bampton Lec- 
tures, 1866. Longmans Green & Co., New York, 1897. 

STALKER, JAS. Imago Christi. A. C. Armstrong & Son, 
New York, 1892. 

BRADFORD, AMORY H. The Age of Faith. Houghton 
Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1900. 

ROGERS, HENRY. The Superhuman Origin of the Bible. 
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1877. 

ROW, C. A. The Jesus of the Evangelists. Norgate. 



430 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

ROW, C. A. The Supernatural in the New Testament. 

Norgate. 
VAN DYKE, H. The Gospel for an Age of Doubt. The 

Macmillan Co., New York, 1896. 
McINTOSH, HUGH. Is Christ Infallible and the Bible 

True. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 

CHAPTER X. 

CHRIST AS SPIRITUAL CREATOR: PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 

HORT, F. J. The Christian Ecclesia. Macmillan & Co., 

London and New York, 1898. 
LYTTLETON, LORD. The Conversion of Paul. Religious 

Tract Society. 
IVERACH, JAS. St. Paul, His Life and Times. A. D. 

F. Randolph & Co., New York. 
STEVENS, G. B. The Pauline Theology. Chas. Scribner 's 

Sons, New York, 1894. 
STEVENS, G. B. The Johannine Theology. Chas. Scrib-' 

ner's Sons, New York. 
CONE, ORELLO. Paul, the Man, the Missionary and the 

Teacher. Macmillan Co., New York, 1898. 
MATHEWS, SHAILER. A History of New Testament 

Times in Palestine. Macmillan Co., New York, 1900. 

Chapters XIII to XV. 
STALKER, JAS. Life of St. Paul. F. H. Revell, Chicago. 
ESTES, D. F. An Outline of New Testament Theology. 

Silver, Burdett & Co., Boston. 
FARRAR, F. W. Early Days of Christianity. Cassell. 

CHAPTER XI. 

CHRIST AS PRACTICAL IDEALIST: ETHICS AND RELIGION. 

BRUCE, A. B. The Kingdom of God. Chas. Scribner *s 
Sons, New York, 1893. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 431 

CLARKE, W. N. What Shall we Think of Christianity? 

Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1899. 
WACE, H. Christianity and Morality. The Macmillan Co., 

New York. 
BRUCE, A. B. The Moral Order of the World. Chas. 

Scribner's Sons, New York, 1899. 
DAVIDSON, W. L. Christian Ethics. F. H. Revell Co., 

Chicago. 
KNOX, G. W. Direct and Fundamental Proofs of the 

Christian Beligion. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 

1903. 
SMYTH, NEWMAN. Christian Ethics. T. & T. Clark. 
HYSLOP, J. H. The Evolution of Ethics in the Greek 

Philosophers. Chas. M. Higgins & Co., New York, 1903. 
MATHEWS, SHAILER. The Social Teaching of Jesus. 

The Macmillan Co., 1897. 
WESTON, H. G. Matthew, the Genesis of the New Testa- 
ment. F. H. Revell Company, Chicago. 
SIMPSON, P. C. The Fact of Christ. Fleming H. Revell 

Company, Chicago. 

CHAPTER XII. 

MIRACLES: A BOND OF UNITY. 

BRUCE, A. B. The Miraculous Element in the Gospels. 
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1899. 

MOZLEY, J. B. Lectures on Miracles. Bampton Series, 
1865. Rivingtons, London. 

BUSHNELL, H. Nature and the Supernatural. C. Scrib- 
ner's Sons, New York. 

COX, S. Miracles, an Argument and a Challenge. Kegan 
Paul. 

LIAS, J. J. Are Miracles Credible? Hodder & Stoughton. 

GRIMTHORPE, LORD. Review of Hume and Huxley on 
Miracles. 

THOMSON, W. The Christian Miracles and Conclusions of 
Science. T. & T. Clark. 



432 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER Xni. 

THE CROWNING MIRACLE: CHRIST'S RESURRECTION. 

MILLIGAN, W. The 'Resurrection of Our Lord. The Mac- 
millan Co., New York, 1901. 

KENNEDY, J. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Re- 
ligious Tract Society, London. 

WESTCOTT, B. F. The Gospel of the Resurrection. The 
Macmillan Co., New York. 

MACLAREN, ALEX. Sermons Preached in Manchester. 
Third Series. Sermon XXIII, Witnesses of the Resur- 
rection. Macmillan & Co., London, 1881. 

Nearly all works on Christian Evidences and Apologetics 
Discuss the Resurrection. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FOUR GOSPELS : THE LITERARY SOURCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

WESTCOTT, B. F. The Canon of the New Testament. 
Macmillan & Co., New York, 1896. Seventh edition. 
Pp. 605. 

GODET, F. Introduction to the New Testament. Collec- 
tion of the Four Gospels. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 
1899. Pp. 272. 

DALE, R. W. The Living Christ and the Four Gospels. A. 
C. Armstrong & Sons, New York, 1890. Pp. 299. Popu- 
lar but able. 

CHARTERIS, A. H. Canonicity. Blackwood & Sons, Edin- 
burgh, 1880. Pp. 471. 

DRUMMOND, J. Character and Authorship of the Fourth 
Gospel. Scribner 's, New York, 1904. Pp. 528. Un- 
usually clear and convincing defense of the Johannine 
Authorship. 

ROW, C. A. Manual of Christian Evidences. Thomas Whit- 
aker, New York, 1900. Pp. 206. Chapter VII. 

FISHER, G. P. Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief. 
Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1902. Revised edition. 
Chs. X, XI, XII. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 433 

GREGORY, C. R. The Text and Canon of New Testament. 
McGIFFERT, A. C. History of the Apostolic Age. 
SALMOND. Introduction to the New Testament. 
WACE. The Gospel and Its Witnesses. 
SANDAY, Wil. The Gospels in the Second Century. 
ZENOS, A. C. The Elements of the Higher Criticism. 

Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York, 1895. 
WESTCOTT, B. F. Introduction to the Study of the Gos- 
pels. Macmillan & Co., New York, 1887. 
HORTON, R. F. Revelation and the Bible. Macmillan & 

Co., New York. 
LIGHTFOOT, J. B. Essays on the Work Entitled Super- 
natural Religion. Macmillan & Co., New York, 1889. 
NASH, H. S. The History of the Higher Criticism of the 

New Testament. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1900. 
CHARTERIS. The New Testament Scriptures. Nisbet. 
KENNEDY, J. The Gospels, Their Age and Authorship. 

Sunday School Union. 
SANDAY, W. Authorship and Historical Cliaracter of the 

Fourth Gospel. The Macmillan Co. 
ROBERTSON, A. T. The Students' Chronological New 
Testament. F. H. Revell Co., Chicago. 
For discussion of objections to the testimony to the 
Gospels see the above list of books as follows: Westcott : 
The Canon, on Papias, pp. 69 ff. ; Justin Martyr, pp. 99 ff.; 
Marcion, pp. 318 ff.; Tatian, pp. 326 ff.; Irenaeus, pp. 388 
ff. Light foot: Essays, etc., Eusebius, pp. 32 ff. ; Polycarp, 
pp. 89 ff.; Papias, pp. 142-216; Tatian, pp. 272-288; es- 
pecial attention is called to Lightfoot's discussions, The 
Silence of Eusebius and The Later School of St. John, pp. 
217 ff. Drummond : Character, etc., of Fourth Gospel. See 
especially Book II, Section I, Chapters I to XII. Godet: 
Int. to Gospel Collection, pp. 1-109. Fisher: Grounds etc. 
Chapters X, XI, XII. 



434 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER XV. 

CHRIST AND EVOLUTION: HIS PLACE IN THE WORLD ORDER. 

GRIFFITH-JONES, E. The Ascent Through Christ. Ed- 
win S. Gorham, New York. 

DRUMMOND, H. The New Evangelism. Dodd, Mead & 
Co., New York, 1899. 

SAPHIR, A. The Divine Unity of Scripture. F. H. Revell 
& Co., Chicago. 

DAVIDSON, A. B. The Theology of the Old Testament. 
Charles Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1904. 

PRICE, IRA M. The Monuments and the Old Testament: 
Oriental Light on Holy Writ. Christian Culture Press, 
Chicago, 4th ed. 1905. 

GORE, CHARLES. The Incarnation of the Son of God. 
Charles Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1898. 

DAVIDSON, A. B. Old Testament Prophecy. T. & T. 
Clark, Edinburgh, 1904. 

GORE, CHARLES. Lux Mundi. Studies in the Religion 
of the Incarnation, by various writers. Thomas Whit- 
taker, New York. 

SCHULTZ, HERMANN. Old Testament Theology. Trans, 
from 4th German ed. by Rev. J. A. Paterson, M. A., 
D.D. Second English edition, 2 volumes. 

BRUCE, A. B. Apologetics. Third edition. New York. 
Charles Scribner 's Sons, 1896. Book II, Chs. 5 and 6. 

LECONTE, PROFESSOR. Evolution in Belation to Re- 
ligious Thought. Second edition. Pp. 360-364. 

FISHER, G. P. The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Be- 
lief. Revised edition. New York. Charles Scribner 's 
Sons, 1902. Ch. XIV, 

HENSLOW, REV. GEORGE. Christ No Product of Evo- 
lution. London, George Stoneman, 1896. 

FAIRBAIRN, A. M. The Philosophy of the Christian Re- 
ligion. Macmillan Co., New York, 1902. Book II, Part 
III. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 43-3 

DRUMMOND, HENRY. The Ascent of Man, James Pott 

& Co., New York, 1894. 
UHLHORN, G. The Conflict of Christianity With 

Heathenism. New York. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879. 
GIBBON, EDWARD. History of the Decline and Fall of 

the Roman Empire. In five volumes. Vol. I, Ch. XV. 

Hooper, Clarke & Co., New York and Chicago. 
MATHESON, GEORGE. Can the Old Faith Live With the 

New? Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1889. 

CHAPTER XX. 

RELATION OP CHRIST TO CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

STARBUCK, E. D. The Psychology of Religion. Charles 

Scribner's Sons, New York, 1900. 
JAMES, WILLIAM. The Varieties of Christian Experi- 
ence. Gifford Lectures, 1901-2. Longmans, Green & 

Co., New York, 1902. 
ISAACSON, CHARLES S. Roads to Christ. Religious 

Tract Society, London, 1904. 
WACE, HENRY. The Foundations of Faith. Bampton 

Lectures, 1879. Pickering & Co., London, 1880. 
NEWMAN, J. H. Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Longmans, 

Green & Co., New York, 1893. Pp. 323 ff. 
GORDON, A. J. The Holy Spirit in Missions. F. H. Re- 

veil Co., Chicago. 
FROUDE, J. A. Short Studies on Great Subjects. First 

series. Charles Scribner's Sons. Essay on The Lives 

of the Saints. 
VAUGHAN, R. A. Hours With the Mystics. Gibbings & 

Co., London, 1895. 
HALL, G. STANLEY. Adolescence. 1904. 
FOSTER, FRANK H. Christian Life and Theology. F. H. 

Revell Co., New York and Chicago. 
DALE, R. W. The Living Christ and the Four Gospels. 

A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York, 1S90. 



436 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GRANGER, F. The Soul of a Christian. The Macmillan 
Co., New York, 1900. 

JAMES, W. Psychology, briefer course, and Principles of 
Psychology. Two volumes. Henry Holt & Co., New 
York. 

DAVIS, N. K. Elements of Psychology. Silver, Burdett & 
Co., Boston, 1898. 

COE, G. A. The Spiritual Life. F. H. Revell & Co., Chi- 
cago, 1903. 

FAUNCE, D. W. Christian Experience. American Baptist 
Publication Society, Philadelphia. 

STEARNS, L. F. The Evidence of Christian Experience. 
C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1898. 

FRANK, DR. FR. H. R. System of the Christian Certainty. 
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1886. Translated from the 
German by Maurice J. Evans. 

MURRAY, ANDREW. The Master's Indwelling. F. H. 
Revell Co., New York. 

ROMANES, G. J. Thoughts on Religion. Edited by Charles 
Gore. The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, 1895. 

GREGORY, E. L. A Scientist 's Confession of Faith. Amer- 
ican Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia. 

HALL, C. C. Christian Belief Interpreted by Christian Ex- 
perience. Barrows Lectures, 1902-03. Methodist Pub- 
lishing House, Tokio, Japan, 1903. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE TEST OF USEFULNESS. 

UHLHORN, GERHARD. The Conflict of Christianity 
with Heathenism. Translated from third German edi- 
tion by E. C. Smyth and J. C. H. Ropes. Charles Scrib- 
ner's, New York, 1879. 

LECKY, W. E. H. History of European Morals. Apple- 
ton & Co., New York. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 437 

FISHER, GEORGE P. Grounds of Theistio and Christian 
Belief. Charles Scribner's, New York, 1902. Revised 
edition. Chs. IV, V, VI. 

LORIMER, GEORGE C. The Argument for Christianity. 
American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 
1894. Chs. II and VIII. 

SOHM, RUDOLF. Outlines of Church History. Translated 
by Miss May Sinclair. Macmillan & Co., London, 1901. 

FAIRBAIRN, A. M. Religion in History and Modern Life. 
D. F. Randolph & Co., New York, 1894. 

JAMES, WILLIAM. The Will to Believe and Other Essays. 
Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1898. Chs. I, III, 
IV. 

GORDON, GEORGE A. The Christ of To-day. Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., Cambridge, 1896. 

MILMAN, H. H. History of Christianity. W. J. Widdle- 
toD, New York. Three volumes. Vol. I. 

SCHAFF, PHILIP. History of the Christian Church. 
Charles Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1882. In seven vol- 
umes. Chs. I, II in Vol. II. 

STORRS, R. S. The Divine Origin of Christianity. Pil- 
grim Press, Boston. 

FARRAR, F. W. The Witness of History to Christ. The 
Macmillan Co. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE PAST AND PRESENT CHRIST AND HIS SUPREME ACT. 

UHLHORN, GERHARD. Christian Charity in the Ancient 

Church. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1883. 

Translated from the German. 
BRACE, C. L. Gesta Christi. A. C. Armstrong & Son, New 

York, 1900. Sixth edition. 
SCHMIDT, C. The Social Besults of Early Christianity. 

William Isbister, London, 1889. Translated from the 

German. 



438 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GORDON, GEORGE A. The Christ of To-day. Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 1896. 

NICOLL, W. ROBERTSON. The Church's One Founda- 
tion. A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York, 1901. 

See also Lecky 's History of European Morals and TJhlhorn 's 
Conflict of Christianity With Heathenism. 

MATHEWS, SHAILER. The Social Teaching of Jesus. 
The Macmillan Co., New York, 1897. 

GORDON, G. A. The New Epoch for Faith. Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1901. 

NASH, H. S. Genesis of the Social Conscience. The Mac- 
millan Co., New York, 1897. 

HYDE, W. D. Outlines of Social Theology. Macmillan & 
Co., New York, 1895. 

ALLEN, A. V. G. Beligious Progress. Houghton, Mifflin 
& Co., Boston, 1895. 

THOMPSON, R. E. Divine Order of Human Society. 
John D. Wattles, Philadelphia, 1891. 

ASKWITH, E. H. The Christian Conception of Holiness. 
The Macmillan Co., New York, 1900. 

BRUCE, A. B. The Providential Order of the World, 
Charles Scribner 's Sons, New York, 1897. 

ALLEN, A. V. G. Christian Institutions. Charles Scrib- 
ner 's Sons, New York, 1897. Chapter IX on Monasti- 
cism. 

BRYCE, JAMES. The Holy Boman Empire. Lovell Cor- 
yell & Co., New York. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

DENNIS, JAMES S. Christian Missions and Social Prog- 
ress. Two volumes. F. H. Revell Co., Chicago, 1899. 

Same author. Foreign Missions After a Century. F. H. 
Revell Co., Chicago, 1893. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 439 

BARNES, L. C. Two Thousand Tears of Missions Before 
Carey. Christian Culture Press, Chicago, 1900. 

BARROWS, JOHN H. The Christian Conquest of Asia. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1899. 

MACKENZIE, W. DOUGLAS. Christianity and the Prog- 
ress of Man. F. H. Revell Co., Chicago, 1897. 

LEONARD, D. L. A Hundred Years of Missions. Funk So 
Wagnalls, New York, 1895. 

FREMANTLE, W. H. The World as the Subject of Re- 
demption. Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1895. 

CONE, ORELLO. Paul, the Man, the Missionary and the 
Teacher. Macmillan Co., New York, 1898. 

GULICK, S. L. The Growth of the Kingdom of God. F. 
H. Revell Co., Chicago. 

SOHM, RUDOLF. Outlines of Church History. Macmillan 
Co., London, 1901. 

DWIGHT, H. O. Encyclopedia of Missions. Funk & Wag- 
nalls, New York, 1904. Second edition. 

Ecumenical Missionary Conference of 1900, Proceedings of. 
American Tract Society, New York, 1900. Two volumes. 

WARNECK. Outlines of the History of Protestant Mis- 
sions from the Reformation to the Present Time. 

CHRISTLIEB, THEO. Protestant Foreign Missions. Con- 
gregational Publishing Society, Boston. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

CHRIST COMPARED WITH MOHAMMED AND BUDDHA. 

The Qwr'an. Translated by E. H. Palmer. Sacred Books 

of the East Series. F. Max Mtiller, editor. Garendon 

Press, Oxford. 
SALE, GEORGE. The Koran. Translated. American 

Book Exchange, New York, 1880. 
McDONALD, D. B. The Development of Muslim Theology, 

Jurisprudence and Constitutional History. C. Scribner's 

Sons, New York, 1903. 



440 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

SELL, EDWARD. The Faith of Islam. Kegan Paul, 

Trench, Trtibner & Co., London, 1896. 
DODS, MARCUS. Mohammed, Buddha and Christ Hodder 

& Stoughton, London, 1899. 
HARDWICK, C. Christ and Other Masters. Macmillan & 

Co., London, 1882. 
SMITH, R. B. Mohammed and Mohammedanism. Harper 

Bros., New York, 1875. 
HUGHES, T. P. Notes on Mohammedanism. W. H. Allen 

& Co., London, 1894. 
MUIR, W. The Mohammedan Controversy. T. & T. Clark. 
MUIR, W. Mohammed and Islam. Religious Tract Society. 
CO WELL, E. B. Buddhist Mahay ana Texts; The Buddha- 

Karita of Asvaghosha. Translated from the Sanscrit. 

Edited by F. Max Miiller in Sacred Books of the East. 

Series. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1894. 
RHYS DAVIDS, T. W. Buddhist Suttas. Translated from 

Pali. Edited by F. M. Miiller. Sacred Books of the 

East Series. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1881. 
RHYS DAVIDS, T. W. Lectures on Origin and Growth 

of Religion as illustrated by Indian Buddhism. Hibbert 

Lectures, 1881. Williams & Norgate, London. 
HOPKINS, E. W. Religions of India. Ginn & Co., Bos- 
ton, 1902. 

MONIER-WILLIAMS, M. Buddhism in Its Connection 
With Brahmanism and Hinduism and in Its Contrast 
With Christianity. Macmillan & Co., New York, 1899. 

BARROWS, J. H. The World's Parliament of Religions. 
Two volumes. Parliament Publishing Co., Chicago, 
1893. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

CHRISTIANITY THE TOTAL ANSWER TO MAN *S RELIGIOUS NEED. 

FAIRBA1RN, A. M. The Place of Christ in Modern The- 
ology. Charles Seribner's, New York, 1894. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 441 

FAIRBAIRN, A. M. Religion in History and Modern Life. 
A. D. F. Randolph & Co., New York, 1894. 

GORDON, G. A. Ultimate Conceptions of Faith. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co., New York, 1903. 

GORDON, G. A. The Witness to Immortality. Putnam's. 

JASTROW, JR., MORRIS. The Study of Religion. Con- 
temporary Science Series. Edited by Havelock Ellis. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1902. 

FAIRBAIRN, A. M. The Philosophy of the Christian 
Religion. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1902. 

ROBERTSON, A. T. The Teaching of Jesus Concerning 
God the Father. American Tract Society, New York, 
1904. 

KIDD, B. Social Evolution. Hodder & Stoughton. 

TIELE, C. P. Elements of the Science of Religion. Wil- 
liam Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1899. 
Two volumes. 

SALMOND, S. D. F. The Christian Doctrine of Immortal- 
ity. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1903. 

SWING, A. T. The Theology of Albrecht Ritschl. Long- 
mans, Green & Co., New York, 1901. 

ORR, JAMES. The Ritschlian Theology. Thomas Whit- 
taker, New York. 



INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 



Africa, 398. 

Agnosticism, its method, 22 ; 
discussed, 48-57 ; why called, 
48 ; attitude toward visible 
universe, 49 ; our faculties, 
50 ; criticism of, in relation 
to faculties and outer world, 
50 : to ultimate force, 51 ; 
to God, 52, 56 ff; to 
knowledge, 52 ; partial, 56 ; 
referred to, 309 ; assump- 
tion of, 53 ff. 

Albigenses, 354. 

Alexandrian Philosophy, 151. 

Alogoi, 218. 

Altruism, 347, 363. 

Anabaptists, 354. 

Anselm, 74. 

Anthropomorphism, 88. 

Anti-Christian views, support 
of, 5. 

Apologetics and Evidences, 
difference between, 4. 

Aristion, 209. 

Argyll, Duke of, 84. 

Aristotle, 227, 319. 

Arnold, Matthew, 88, 127, 139. 

Art and Architecture, 311. 

Assurance and Christian Ex- 
perience, 291. 

Athanasius, 293. 

Augustine of Hippo, 331, 407. 

Augustine the Missionary, 374. 

Ballard, mentioned, vii. 
Baptism, 311. 
Barnard College, 253. 
Best, Absolute and Relative, 

398. 
Boniface, 374. 
Brace, C. L., 344. 
Brnbmanism, 401. 
Browning, 356. 
Bruce, Prof., mentioned, vii ; 

on God, 75 ; miracles, 185. 
Bryn Mawr College, 258. 
Buddhism and sin, 291 ; 

founder, 385 ff. ; visions of, 

386 ff. ; its cure for evil 



443 



387 ff. ; four truths of, 388 ; 
eight-fold path, 388 ; metem- 
psychosis and Karma, 389 
ff. ; Nirvana, 390 ; ethics of, 
391 : and Christianity, 391, 
395, 399 ; referred to, 401. 

Bunyan, Christian experience 
of, 348 ff. 

Bushnell, Horace, 179. 

Calvin, John, 331. 

Cambridge University, 309. 

Carey, William, 363, 372, 374. 

Carlyle, Thomas, 378. 

Causation, law of, 9, 15. 

Cause and effect, 296 ; rela- 
tion to pantheism, 28 ; ideal- 
ism, 33 ff. 

Christ and evolution, three 
statements about, 222-229 ; 
and Judaism, 229-233 : prep- 
aration for Christ, 233 ; and 
Israel, 234-236 ; contradic- 
tory elements in, 236. 

Christ in history, 343-347; a 
finality, 319; the idealistic, 
305; the Ritschlian, 305 
ff. ; of psychology, 306-308. 

Christian ethics, 159-161 ; 
evidences, reason for, 3 ; 
view of God and world, 18, 
20. 

Christian experience of Paul, 
242 ff. ; of John, 244; 
of Polycarp, 244 ff. ; of St. 
Hilary, 245 ff. ; of Luther, 
247 ff. ; of John Bunyan, 
248; of A. Monod, 249; of 
Hudson Taylor, 250; of S. 
H. Hadley, 251 ff. ; of Sir 
Algernon Coote, 252 ff. ; of 
Capt. A. T. Mahan, 253; 
of Bishop Moule, 253 ff. ; 
of R. A. Torrey, 254 ; of J. 
Ewlng, 255; of Steve Hol- 
combe, 256 ff. ■ of Emily L. 
Gregory, 258 ff. ; and Sci- 
ence, 241 ; a question of 
fact, 264 ff., 275; character 
and scope, 266; initial 



444 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 



stage, 267-269; results, 269- 
274 ; elements of, 273 ; from 
without, 275 ff., 278-280 
scientific view of, 276 ff. 
personal source of, 280 ff. 
and Christ, 283 ff. ; how 
verified, 287-303; as effect 
and cause, 296 ; and New 
Testament, 299 ff. ; and 
Holy Spirit, 300. 

Christianity, an order of facts, 
viii ; vs. other systems, 317- 
319, 337 ; success of, 326- 
333 ; workableness of, 333- 
338 ; cause of success of, 
338-342 ; and the individual, 
351-353 ; the final religion, 
400-412 ; its moral ideal, 
406 ff ; universalism of, 
407-409; attitude of, C. 
toward other faiths, 410 ; 
and opportunism, 399 ; task 
of defender of, 4 ; and sci- 
ence, 6-8 ; and idealism, 36 ; 
and pessimism, 409 ff. ; and 
Buddhism, 411. 

"Church's One Foundation, 
The/' vii, 176. 

Clarke, W. N., 7. 

Clement, 206, 207, 331. 

Coe, Prof. G. A., 266. 

Columba, 374. 

Comparative religion, 396, 
401. 

Comte on worship, 400. 

Concomitant variations, 314. 

Confucius, 384 ; ethics of, 157. 

Conservation of energy, law 
of, 38, 51. 

Constantine, legislation of, 
346. 

Conversion, 357. 

Coote, Sir Algernon, 252 ff. 

Cowper, 31. 

Damon, Father, 368. 
Daniel Deronda, 120. 
Darwin, 14. 
Davis, John, 366. 
Deism, 401. 

De Libertate Christiana, 247. 
Dennis, 363, 375. 
De Soto, 366. 
Des Cartes, 8, 13, 15. 
Diatessaron, 208. 
Discontent, moral, 350. 
Docetse and Mark, 217. 
Dods, Prof. Marcus, 393. 
Docatists, 354. 

Double method of valuation, 
396 ff. 



Drake, Sir F., 366. 
Dualism, 28, 37. 
Duff, A., 374. 

Easter, 219. 

Ebionites and Matthew, 217. 

Ecce Homo, 103, 108 ; on 
miracles, 186 ; on spread of 
Christianity, 370. 

Effect and cause, 296. 

Eliot, George, 120, 393. 

Essenes, 229. 

Ethics and religion, 157-169; 
characteristics of Christian- 
ity, 159-161; Greek and 
Roman, 157-159. 

Ethical enterprise of Jesus, 
162, 163, 167-169; difficul- 
ties of, and how met, 164- 
167. 

Eusebius, 210-220. 

Evidences, reason for, 3 ; and 
Apologetics, difference be- 
tween, 4. 

Evolution, its method, 23 • 
discussed, 58-71 ; definition 
and scope of, 58-61 ; three 
notable facts about, 59-62; 
difficulties as to origins, 62, 
63; continuity, 63; inclus- 
iveness, 63, 64, 65 ; scientific 
and philosophical, 61 ; the- 
istic trend, 66-69; four at- 
titudes toward, 69-71 ; and 
Christ, 222-229. 

Ewing, J., 255. 

Fact, inner and outer world 

of, 21. 
Fairbairn, A. M., 123, 315, 

331, 411. 
Faith, 268, 269, 272, 408, 409. 
Faunce, W. H. P., 262. 
Findlay, G. G., 142. 
Fisher, G. P., 96, 159. 
Fiske, John, 14, 43, 67, 68, 

287. 
Flint, R„ 56. 
Florinus, 210. 
Frank, 289. 
Froude, 5, 365. 
"Fullness of Times," 398-400. 
Function, three kinds of, 42. 

Gesta Christi, 343-347. 

Oestum Christi, 347-357, 343. 

Gibbon on Roman morals, 227 ; 
referred to, 255 ; on Chris- 
tianity. 338. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 366. 

Gnostics and John, 218. 



INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 



445 



God, doctrine of, 400-403. 

Godet, 215. 

Goethe, 127. 

Gordon, G. A., on Christianity 
and Buddha, 411 ; on Lu- 
ther, 311. 

Gore, on miracles. 182. 

Gospel of John, objections to. 
220. 

Gospels, authenticity of, 205- 
211; apostolicity. 212-219; 
the mythical. 211. 

Greek Philosophers, 318. 

Gregory, Pinny L., 258 ff. 

Gautama, 383. 

Hadlev, S. II.. Christian ex- 
perience of, 251. 

Haeckel, 14. 

Hall, C. C, on Christian ex- 
perience, 200. 

Barnack, on Fatherhood of 
God. 142. 107; on personal 
Christianity, 314 ; resurrec- 
tion, 202. 

Hawaiian Islands, 300. 

Hegel, 33. 

Hinduism and personality, 
281. 

Ilolcombe, Steve, Christian 
experience of, 230. 

Holy Spirit, 407 ; and Chris- 
tinn experience, 300-302. 

Hurt, Dr., on Kingdom of God, 

Hume, referred to, 9, 16, 73, 

171 ; on miracles, 174, 170. 

Hutton, R. H., 120. 

Huxley, Thomas, referred to. 
4, 7, 8, 9. 15, 10, 21 : on 
resurrection, 198 ; on altru- 
ism, 364. 

Idealism, source, 33; discus- 
sion, 33-47 ; defined, 33, 34 ; 
truth of, 33; a half truth. 
30 ; vs. materialism, 30 ; 
and Christianity, 30. 

Incarnation, 401-403. 

Individual, worth of, 351-353. 

Inductive logic, 5. 

Infra-personal God, 403. 

Irenaeus on Gospels, 205 ; re- 
ferred to, 207. 210, 211, 
212; attacked, 220. 

Israel and Christ, 234-236. 

James, William, referred to, 
42, 75, 70, 340 : on repent- 
ance, 165 ; sectarian scient- 
ist, 170 ; religious experi- 



ence, 241, 2G8, 280 ; subcon- 
sciousness. 277 ; oversold, 
300, 307. 

Japan, 352. 

Jesuit missionaries, .">i -!. 

Jesus, solution of universe, 
93 ; no wonder-worker, 1 : 
historic character, 95 ; and 
sin. 00, 07, 98 : and other 
teachers, 08. 00 ; and Mos. 8, 
99, 100 : and law, 100, 10] : 
and Kingdom of God, 101- 
104 : and Providence, 104 : 
Supreme Arbiter, 105; rela- 
tion to forces of nature. 
100 : to evil forces, L06; tu 
mankind. 100-108; to Gpd, 
108-110 : life work of, 110; 
and miracles, 111 ; super' 
natural, 112: moral beauty 
of, 125-120; spiritual 
creator, 137. 140, 154-156; 
two views of, 130; as teach- 
er, 138 : ethics of, 157 : and 
religious experience. 309- 
317; and Judaism, 229- 
234 ; a finality 319 ; Synop- 
tic picture of: its unity, 
113-118 : interdependence, 
118, 119 : originality and vi- 
tality. 120 ; moral grandeur, 
121-124. 

Jevons, Prof., 04. 

John the Presbyter, 210. 

Judaizers, 218. 

Judaism and Jesus, 229-231. 

Judson, Adoniram, 303, 374. 

Julian. 333. 

Justinian, legislation of. 340. 

Juvenal on Roman morals, 
227. 

Kant, 33, 73 ; on pure reason, 
339. 

Karma, doctrine of, 380, 300. 

Kennedy, John, on the resur- 
rection, 190. 

Keim, on resurrection, 199. 

Kidd's Social Evolution, 390. 

Kingdom of God defined, 102 : 
membership in, 110. 

Koran, 379, 383. 

Lanier, Sidney, 122, 135. 

Lecky, W. E. H., referred to, 
128, 152, 154 ; on modern 
thought, 185 ; on Stoicism, 
332; on Christianity, 332, 
338, 341, 347. 

Le Corate, 04 ; on evolution. 
222, 



446 



INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 



Lewis, Sir C, on evidence, 

190. 
Libauius, 334. 
Livingstone. 368, 374. 
Livy, on Roman morals, 227. 
Lotze, 29. 

Lowell, 356. _ n _ t 

Luther referred to, 331, 3o4 : 

on Christian experience, 

247. 

Mackay, 374. 

Maclaren, A., quoted, 338; on 
miracles, 202. 

Madagascar, 399. 

Mahan, A. T., Christian ex- 
perience of, 253. 

Man, moral life of, 7 ; needs 
of, 404, 405, 406 ; Chris- 
' tian doctrine of, 403-410. 

Marcion, testimony of, 217. 

Mackay, 374. 

Maclaren, A., quoted, 338 ; on 
miracles, 202. 

Madagascar, 399. 

Mahan, A. T., Christian expe- 
rience of, 253. 

Man, moral life of, 7 ; needs 
of, 404, 405, 406 ; Chris- 
tian doctrine of, 403-410. 

Marcion, testimony of, 217. 

Martyr, Justin, on gospels, 
208, 209. 

Materialism, 23 ; discussed, 
37-47 ; source of, 33, 37 : 
and matter, 37-39 ; and 
mind, 37 ; and conservation 
of energy, 38 ; and psychol- 
ogy, 39 ; criticised as to 
matter, 39, 40, 46, 47" 
mind, 39, 40, 43, 46, 47 
principle of unity, 40 
spontaneous generation. 41 
brain activity and thought, 
42, 43 ; will, 44 ; morality 
and religion, 45 : mind 
stuff, 46 ; practical and 
theoretical, 47. 

Mecca, 380, 381, 382. 

Metempsvchosis, 389. 

Mill. J. S., 7, 89, 126, 134, 
189 ; on Christian ideal, 
1 59, 336 : on heroic virtues, 
168. 

Milman, Dean, on growth of 
Christianity, 326. 

Miracles, viii ; discussed, 170- 
187 ; definition, 170 ; atti- 
tude toward, 170-172. 174: 
and science, 172 : and phil- 
osophy, 173, 174 ; and re- 



ligious experience, 176, 177, 
1(8; case for Christian 
stated, 178-187. 

Miraculous and Supernatural, 
distinction between, 175. 

Missions, conception of, 360- 
363 : motive, , 363-369 ; 
method, 369-372 : energy, 
372-376; results, 376-377. 

Mohammedanism, 161, 335, 
337, 398, 399, 401 ; idea of 
God, 379, 381 ; educational 
standard, 379 ; church and 
state, 379, 380 ; five prac- 
tices, 380 ; alms giving, 
380 ; abstemiousness, 380 ; 
pilgrimages, 381 ; morals, 
382 ; rewards, 382, 383 ; 
means of propagandism, 
383 ; and Christianity, 384, 
385. 

Mommsen, on Roman morals, 
227. 

Monism, 26. 

Monod. Christian experience 
of, 249. 

Monasticism, 354. 

Montanists, 354. 

Moravians, 368, 372, 373. 

Morrison, 374. 

Moule, Bishop, Christian expe- 
rience of, 253. 

Muratorian Fragment, 206. 

Mysticism, Christian, 290. 

Xash, on man, 349. 
Nature, uniformity of, 9, 15. 
Newman. J. H., 340. 
Nicoll, W. R., referred to, vii, 
176 ; on resurrection, 198. 
Nirvana, 389, 890. 
Novatians, 354. 

Opportunism, 399. 
Origen, referred to. 217. 331. 
Orr, James, on unity, 223. 
Overbeliefs, 306-308. 
Oversoul, 306, 307. 
Ovid, on exposure of infants, 
344. 

Pantheism, discussed, 20-32 ; 
method, 23 ; purpose, 23, 
24 ; and matter and mind, 
24 ; and visible world, 25 ; 
and God, 25, 26; and mo- 
nism, 26 ; and moral con- 
sciousness, 31 ; and person- 
ality, 29 ; and cause and 
effect, 28 ; fascination of, 
27 : criticism of, 27-32 : re- 
ferred to, 401. 



INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 



447 



Papias, on the Gospels, 209, 

210. 
Parsimony, law of, 51, 300, 

307, 308. 
Paton, J. G., 303. 
Paul, 132, 300; and modern 

Europe, 331 ; and Syuop- 

tists, 140-151 ; not creator 

of Christianity, 151152: 

and John, 152 ; and Rome, 

361 : and miracles. IS-!. 
Person of Christ, 147, 153, 

155 ; Paul, John and Syn- 

optists, 153: and Christian 

experience, 292-294. 
Personality, 8, 15, 10, 87, 

281 ; and pantheism. 29. 
Pennsylvania, University of, 

258. 
Peshito, The, and the Gospels, 

207. 
Pessimism, and Christianity, 

409-410. 
Pharisees, 229. 
Pietism, 372. 
Pilate, 228. 
Plato, 228, 348. 
Pollio, on cruelty to slaves, 

345. 
Polycarp, on Gospels, 210, 

211, 212. 
Polvtheism. 401. 
Prayer, 297. 

Quintillian, on pagan inhu- 
manities, 344. 

Race, unity of, 362. 

Raleigh, Sir W., 366. 

Ramadan, fast of, 380. 

Rawlinson, on evidence, 190. 

Reason, trustworthiness of, 7. 

Reflection, and Christian ex- 
perience. 290-294. 

Regeneration, 348, 407. 

Renan, 125, 134, 139; on res- 
urrection, 199. 

Repentance, 268, 408-409. 

Resident forces, 60, 222. 

Resurrection, 116 ; facts of, 
188 ; evidence of Gospels to, 
191-193; of Paul to, 193- 
195; effects of, 195, 196; 
Judaizers and heretics on, 
197 ; and present day wit- 
nesses, 197 ; theories of, 
197-203. 

Rhys Davids, 392 ff. 

Rltschl, A., 305, 340. 

Rogers, Henry, 131. 

Roman Catholic missionaries, 
314. 



Romanes, referred t ), 17, 66, 
67, 68, 126, 159; on Chris- 
tian ethics, 160, 336 ; on 
miracles, 309, 174. 

Rome, 361. 

Rousseau, 130. 

Row, C. A., 132. 

Sabatier. referred to, 167. 

Sadducees, referred to, 229. 

Sandav, on love. 142 ; referred 
to, 102: on Romans. 144. 

Schaft's Creeds of Christen- 
dom. 310. 

Science, and religion, 9. 10; 
diverse conclusions. !>. 10, 
13, 14 ; province, 10 ; facts 
of, physical and moral, 1 1. 
12; advantages of, moral, 
12, 13 : and Christian ex- 
perience. 241. 

Scientific ideal, 8. 

Seeley, Prof., 134. 

Selective process, in Chris- 
tian literature, 212-21!). 

Seneca, 159 ; on morals, 227 ; 
on suicide, 229. 

Sermon on the Mount, 143, 
407. 98, 160. 

Shelley, 57. 

Shepherd of Hermas, 215. 

Sin and Christian experience, 
291. 

Skepticism, 309. 

Slavery. 345. 

Socinianism. 314. 

Sohm, R., on Christian benev- 
olence, 373. 

Solidarity of society, 362 ; of 
race, 399. 

South Sea Islands, 399. 

Spencer, Herbert, 48, 58. 

Spener, 372. 

Spinoza, 23, 24, 26, 28. 

Spontaneous generation, 41. 

Stewart, on tests of religion, 
158. 

Stoicism, 365. 

Strauss, 127, 139 ; on resur- 
rection, 198-202 ; on wor- 
ship, 400. 

Substance, idea of, 24, 29 ; at- 
tributes of, 24. 

Success of Christianity, 326- 
333 : causes, 338-342. 

Suicide, see Seneca. 

Supernatural and miraculous, 
difference between, 175. 

Supernatural Reliyion, quoted, 
125-139. 

Supra-personal and moral 
God, 403. 



448 



INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 



Synoptic picture of Jesus, 93- 

111, 112, 130-134. 
Synoptists and Paul, 140-147. 

Tacitus, on cruelty to slaves, 
345. 

Tatian's "Address to Greeks," 
207. 

Tatian and the Gospels, 207, 
208. 

Taylor, Hudson, on Christian 
experience, 250. 

Tennyson, 356. 

Tertullian, on Gospels, 206 ; 
mentioned, 207. 

Tests of facts, 190 ; of reli- 
gion, 397. 

Theism, method, 23 ; dis- 
cussed, 72-90 ; evidences 
for, 72, 73; related to 
pure and practical rea- 
son, 73-75 ; proofs of, 
mathematical, 76, 77 ; in- 
nate, 77-79 ; presence of 
will in universe, 79-81 ; 
presence of mind, 81-83 ; 
evidence of design, 83-85 ; 
moral proof, 85, 86 ; defence 
of, 86-90 ; cosmomorphic, 
89. 

Theories of universe, 22. 

Thought, laws of, 55, 56. 

Tolstoy, 305. 

Torrey, R. A., Christian expe- 
rience of, 254. 

Transmigration, 389. 

Trinity, doctrine of. 113, 405 ; 



its realm, 275 ; and Chris- 
tian experience, 300. 
Tuebingen school, 145. 

Uhlhorn, on happiness, 229. 
Ultimate beliefs, 9, 10. 
Union of God and man, 406. 
Unity, principle of, 16, 14, 22 ; 

source of, 29 ; of race, 362. 
Unitarianism, 401. 
Universalism of Jews, 360 ; 

of Christianity, 161, 407, 

409. 
Universe, theories of, 22. 
Utility of Christianity, 325, 

333. 

Verification, nature of, 286 ; 
as to Christian experience. 
286-303. 

Virgin birth, referred to, 116, 
118, 149 ; and Christ's ca- 
reer, 226. 

Wace, Dr., 5. 
Wallace, Prof., 63, 71. 
Washington, Geo., 316. 
Westcott, on Canon of the 

New Test., 207. 
Women in non-Christian lands, 

345. 
Wordsworth, referred to, 356. 
Workableness of Christianity, 

325, 333, 338. 
Worship, 407, 408. 

Zoroaster, 384. 



INDEX TO SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 

THB OLD TESTAMENT. 

Genesis 1.27, 353. Isaiah liii, 235. 

Joshua i.9, 341. Jeremiah xxiii.5, 6, 235. 

Psalms lxliv.9, 83. Micah v.2, 235. 

Isaiah ix.6, 7, 235. Zechariah iii.8, 235. 

Isaiah xl.l, 235. Zechariah ix.9, 235. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Matthew v.8, 383, 395. Mark xiv.61, G2, 106. 

V.44, 144. xvi.15, 145, 361. 

xi.27, 109. " xvi.15-18, 141. 
xi.28-29, 107. 

xi.29, 30, 282. Luke v.8, 96. 

xii.6, 100. " ix.l, 141. 

xii.8, 100. " x.7, 144. 

xii.20-42, 101. " x.18, 106. 

xiv.33, 107. " xi.13, 143, 301. 

xvi.17, 106. " xii.17, 20, 145. 

xvi.18, 107, 138. 283. •• xix.12, 103. 

xvi.25, 163. " xxii.29, 30, 103. 

xviii.5, 6, 282. " xxiv.25, 193. 

xviii.20, 109, 166. " xxiv.39, 199. 

xix.21, 282. xxiv.47, 97. 
xx.28, 145. 

xxii.21, 144. John i.17, 340. 

xxii.39-40, 144. • i.9, 304. 

xxiv.14-31, 105. iii.36, 282, 301. 

xxv.31-46, 147, 282. " iv.247. 

xxvi.27, 144. " v.24, 252. 

xxvi.28, 97. " v.40, 301. 

xxvi.63-66, 110. vii.39, 301. 

xxviii.17, 107. xiv.26 ff., 301. 

xxviii.18, 109. " xv.7, 284. 

xxviii.19, 145, 283. " xvi.8 ff., 301. 

xxviii.19, 20, 28::. " xvi.33, 283. 

xxviii.20, 105. " xx.9, 193. 

Mark ii.7, 97. Acts i.4, 301. 

- ii.10, 12, 97. - ii.33, 301. 

'• x.9, 144. xxii.3-15, 242. 
" x.45, 145. 

" xii.35, 106. Romans i, 248. 

" xlv.23, 145. " LI, 141. 
449 



450 



INDEX TO SCRIPTURE TEXTS 



Romans i.3, 4, 147. 

i.4, 196. 
" iv.25, 196. 

v.l, 269. 
" v.3-5, 296. 
" v.5, 269. 

vii.7, 8, 146. 

viii.2, 301. 
" viii.3, 146. 

viii.9, 301. 
" viii.10, 301. 

yiU.ll, 301. 

viii.15, 302, 404. 

viii.29, 301. 

ix.5, 146. 
" -x, 248. 

xii.14, 144. 

xiii.7, 144. 

xiii.9, 144. 
" xiv.17, 143. 

xv.19, 141. 

X Corinthians iii.16, 17, 143. 
v.5, 6, 146. 
vi.2, 143. 
vii.10, 144. 
ix.l, 141. 
ix.14, 144. 
xi.23, 144. 
xii.3, 147. 
xii.11-28, 143. 
xv.3-8, 194. 
xv.24, 143. 
XY.25, 147. 



2 Corinthians iii.3, 143. 
iv.4, 147. 
v.10, 147. 
v.14, 15. 290. 
v.20, 367. 
v.21, 146. 
vii.l, 367. 
viii.9, 147. 
xii.12, 141, 184. 

Galatians i.ll, 12, 141. 

1.11, 17, 145, 244. 
i.16, 148. 
ii.20, 148, 270. 

Ephesians v.25, 312. 

Philippians i.21, 282. 
iii.8, 270. 

Colossians i, 237. 

i.16, 17, 223. 
iii.20, 312. 
iii.24, 312. 

Hebrews iv.16, 406. 

vi.19, 20, 342. 

1 John i.l, 271. 
" i.1-6, 244. 
" i.7, 163. 
" ii.24, 165. 

Revelation il.17, 290. 



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